


Sanvers: Not Enough Time with You

by Super_Danvers



Category: In Time (2011), Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Blue Springs, Danvers Sisters, F/F, In Time - Freeform, Kara Danvers - Freeform, Maggie's Aunt - Freeform, Midvale, National City, Sanvers - Freeform, Sylvia Weis - Freeform, alex danvers - Freeform, maggie sawyer - Freeform, so much running, supercorp-mentioned, supergirl - Freeform, will salas - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-20
Updated: 2019-07-20
Packaged: 2020-05-15 13:41:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 11
Words: 38,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19296910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Super_Danvers/pseuds/Super_Danvers
Summary: + I don't have time. I don't have time to worry about how it happened. It is what it is. We're genetically engineered to stop aging at 25. The trouble is, we live only one more year, unless we can get more time. Time is now the currency. We earn it and spend it. The rich can live forever. And the rest of us? I just want to wake up with more time on my hand than hours in the day. +Living in a world where if you run out of time on your wrist, you die, Maggie Sawyer just wants her life to be better - and to get revenge on the rich. When she escapes Blue Springs and heads to National City, she may have well of found it and some other surprises too. On the run from the timekeepers, Maggie finds new secrets, new friends, and someone very special from the most unlikely of places.





	1. I Wouldn't Waste It

**\+ I don't have time. I don't have time to worry about how it happened. It is what it is. We're genetically engineered to stop aging at 25. The trouble is, we live only one more year, unless we can get more time. Time is now the currency. We earn it and spend it. The rich can live forever. And the rest of us? I just want to wake up with more time on my hand than hours in the day. +**

 

Sun had barely broken over Blue Springs when Maggie Sawyer woke up for work that morning. As always, the first thing the woman did was check the ticking watch on her left forearm. The bright green thirteen numbers, which mostly consisted of zeros, was ticking away steadily as it always did. With a sigh, Maggie swung her legs out of bed and pulled on her work uniform for the day. A scratchy, deep blue fabric that was two sizes too big for the tiny woman so that the trouser leg went past her ankle and had to be rolled several times. The sleeves, which previously had to also be rolled, had a stressed sleeve from where Maggie had ripped them from frustration of endlessly rolling them.

The apartment Maggie and her aunt lived in was small and minimal that had it not been for Gabriella’s construction skills, the two would’ve shared a room. With two box rooms, a bathroom on the left and a closet on the right with a kitchen at the end – it wasn’t exactly something to thrive in. The walls were bleak and grey, faded like a cloudy day were permanently glooming over them. Neither Maggie nor Gabriella had ever had the time to paint them. The floors, all the same, were a dark natural wood that had spatters of decades old paint and god knows what else. Neither of them had the time to paint those either.

Padding into the kitchen in a pair of well-worn purple socks, Maggie could sense the smell of coffee coming from the pot. Coffee was a rare treat for the two women, so the day was starting out good. Maggie’s aunt, Gabriella, was hunched over the sink with her niece’s only pair of boots. Seeing Maggie entering the kitchen, she put the boots down and smiled.

“Good morning sweetie, you sleep well?” She asked brightly. Due to the watches, Gabriella didn’t look a day older than Maggie did and so sometimes Maggie felt like she was talking more to a sister than her aunt.

The younger woman nodded, taking her boots from the side and taking them over to the table where she sat down and began to pull them on. She glanced upwards to her aunt. “Happy birthday, Gabriella.”

Gabriella tilted her head slightly, a mannerism that Maggie had picked up over the years, and looked wistfully at the green clock on her wrist. She shrugged. “Twenty-five for the twenty-fifth time. Starts losing its edge, doesn’t it?”

Maggie grinned. “You make a beautiful fifty.”

Gabriella laughed. “Shut up and put your boots on.” She said as she took the coffee from the pot and poured into two mugs. Hers was a light pink whereas Maggie’s was orange with the words ‘Hello Sunshine’ scrawled across it in black font. She handed it to her niece. “Don’t forget I’m away for two days. Got a quick temp job in the downtown area.”

Maggie nodded, tying the last knot on her boot. “How long have you got?”

Gabriella glanced at her clock again. “Two and a half days. You’ll need to meet me by the bus station, I won’t have long.”

“Got it.”

The aunt regarded her niece for a moment, just looking her up and down as she rubbed her upper arms. “Right, good. Come on, you’ll be late for work.”

Maggie pulled Gabriella into a hug. “I love you.” She mumbled softly into her shoulder.

“I love you too.” Gabriella returned, catching the younger woman’s wrist as she turned to leave. “Hold on. Take thirty minutes and get yourself a proper breakfast.”

The two held each other’s arm tightly, the low whir as moments transferred from Gabriella’s clock to Maggie’s. The worker nodded thankfully, returning a quick second hug before turning and leaving the apartment. Her coffee was left on the table.

+

Blue Springs was the ghetto of all the eight zones; the poorest and the most rundown. Huge billboards with peeling paint haunted the filthy streets, various messages emblazoned across them. All the businesses, apart from a couple of bars and grocery stores, were closed down with dust long settled onto their ‘Going Out Of Business’ signs. Huge warehouses and buildings were crumbling, their windows smashed and grubby and their bricks covered by moss. Maggie, although growing up in its poverty, had always found Blue Springs to be beautiful with its gothic kind of aesthetic. The way the sun would shine through black metal telegraphic poles if you looked at them at the right time of day was like watching a Van Gogh painting come to life.

The residents of Blue Springs were much like its buildings. Lifeless, yet bursting with it at the same time. Haunting, but beautiful beings. It was only when Maggie saw someone who had timed out was she shaken into reality. Thirteen green zeros turned black and lying in the street with an expression of pain written on their frozen face, it was a shattering reminder to the illusion that she could live forever.

Maggie joined the usual hum of factory workers as she did every morning, accompanying her friend, Winn, towards their place of work. Winn, who was dressed in the same uniform as Maggie, grinned as they walked which Maggie noticed.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” She frowned as they stepped over a railroad. “Is there something on my face?”

Winn shook his head. “No reason. Just got a good feeling about today, that’s all.” He replied, although his eyes seemed to be scanning around the workers that walked alongside them. They settled on something over Maggie’s shoulder and his grin widened.

Maggie followed his gaze, locking onto a girl in the same uniform as them with platinum blonde hair and dusty grey eyes. They matched the Blue Springs sidewalk. Maggie noticed that as the girl walked, every so often she’d tug her uniform sleeve down past her hand.

She looked back at Winn, raising a single eyebrow. “Is she new?”

Winn was still staring at the pale girl’s arm. “Laurel Harkness. We went to school together.” He muttered, leaning a little closer to Maggie so that they weren’t overheard. “I bet you could beat her.”

Maggie elbowed him in the side firmly. “I told you, I don’t fight anymore.” She hissed. “I don’t care about how much time she has – someone will probably get it from her before lunchtime.”

Winn shrugged, returning half a nod. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” He shouldered his jacket on a little more. “Still, you could totally beat her.”

Maggie rolled her eyes, but kept an occasional watch on the other factory girl. She reminded her of a ghost. Her skin was almost translucent, and her grey eyes made her look like she was almost blind. By the way she wandered around vaguely, Maggie guessed that she may well have been. She seemed to be oblivious to the hundreds of equally poor people walking around her, her attention focused more towards the railway tracks overhead.

The tracks, huge and gothic, were red with age and rust; trains hadn’t run through them in decades. The ghetto kids used to climb them and play on them before they hit their twenty-fifth year. Maggie and Winn had been amongst them, and were, like most Blue Spring kids, adept climbers with strong arms and nimble minds. This woman did not look like a climber, Maggie thought.

She disappeared from view as the crowds merged together to log into the factory. Figuring they had a little time to spare, Maggie and Winn tore away to get breakfast from the canteen. A huge blackboard had the prices for various meals written on it, and attracted a frown from Winn whilst Maggie scanned her own options.

“Ten minutes for a bagel? It was four yesterday.” He questioned unhappily.

The server looked at him lazily. “Today is a new day.” He rumbled in a bored tone. Winn’s shoulders sagged.

Maggie shook her head and offered her wrist out to the machine. “Here.”

“You don’t-“ Winn started but Maggie waved him off.

“Don’t worry about it.” She replied, handing him his bagel.

The two followed the rest of their workmates to their stations, Winn on packaging and Maggie on pressing. With a tired sigh, she began her work whilst watching the capsules shoot down their tube and into a bucket to be passed over to Winn. Often, she would look at the time capsules with a sense of envy and wondered what the consequences would be if she just took one and just gave herself a week, or even a day.

She glanced at the clock on her wrist, ticking away just as steadily as it had done twenty minutes ago. Yeah, she needed a week.

Hell, didn’t everyone?

+

Maggie didn’t hear herself think until she, Winn and several other colleagues stumbled into one of Blue Springs’ bars after their shift had ended. Everyone had been feeling a little down, but had decided on a round of drinks anyway.

For the third time that month, the quota for capsules processed had gone up without notice and had therefore docked everyone’s wages dramatically. Maggie checked her wrist worriedly as she entered the toilet stalls. If she didn’t work harder tomorrow, she wouldn’t have enough for her aunt when she got back from the temp work.

Winn, who had gone ahead of her when she’d gone to the bathroom, was sat at the back of the bar. As Maggie went to join him, she realised that in the five minutes she’d left her friend, he’d somehow managed to get absolutely hammered. He was hunched over a pint, raising his head sluggishly when he noticed Maggie’s presence.

“Hey Mags!”

“What the hell are you doing?” She questioned as she reached him, noting how his body language was loose and squinty.

Winn laughed loudly in her face, and Maggie tried to ignore the alcoholic stink on his breath. “That guy has been buying all night!” He guffawed, pointing his finger to his left. “He has a _century_!”

Maggie followed his gaze, her eyes settling on a young man with two women on his arm and several empty shot glasses surrounding his seat at the bar. He was dark with a modern buzzcut that had two stripes on either side of his head. Dressed in a button-up white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, exposing his clock, and straight black jeans: it was easy to tell that he wasn’t from here. Maggie shook her head, regarding him warily.

She didn’t know why she did it, but Maggie found herself approaching the man and leaning in front of the two Blue Springs women on his arm. “You’re not from here are you?” She said loudly over the hum of the crowd.

The man laughed and shook his head. “I’m exactly where I need to be.”

Maggie rolled her eyes internally. _Fuckin’ rich people_. She leaned closer to his ear, her little legs struggling with holding her up in such a position so she put her hands on the bar to steady herself. “No, I don’t think you understand. People will rob you for just a few hours: having that kind of time will get you killed!”

When the man shook his head drunkenly again, Maggie lost her patience and shouted in his ear. “You don’t belong here!”

As if on cue, a hush suddenly fell over the crowds and people began to hurry towards the exits. They shoved past Maggie and the man, muttering under their breath in worried voices. Four people had entered the bar, each of them wearing fine clothing that Maggie had seen in shop windows around Blue Springs. Two stood by the exit while a third remained outside the toilet. The fourth, the leader, stepped forward with a smirk.

Maggie felt Winn’s hand jostle her shoulder roughly as he tried to pull her away from the man. “Mags, come on, they’re Minute Men.” He managed through his slurs. “Nothin’ but trouble.”

Maggie shrugged him off, staring at the gang darkly. The leader was a woman, only a little taller than Maggie, with a shock of platinum blonde and white hair that reached down her back. She was dressed in a leather jacket that covered her clock, with a tight blouse underneath.

“My name is Livewire.” She introduced, a greedy glint in her eye. The platinum woman adjusted her jacket slightly as she sneered at the man. “And I want what you have.”

Winn tugged at Maggie’s shoulders again, pulling her back to the corridor of the bar. Maggie pulled against him, remaining out of sight but peering around the door. The gang member by the bathroom door moved into the main part of the bar, ignoring the two Blue Springs’ residents.

Livewire looked at the man’s arm with purpose. “You, sir, have a very nice watch.” She drawled, her dark eyes flickering up to his. “Mind if I try it on? I think it’ll suit me.”

Maggie couldn’t see the man’s face from her position in the corridor but judging by the way the gang started to chuckle, she could guess that he had paled. Winn was still trying to pull her away from the bar, having seemingly sobered up a little.

“Come on Mags, he’s got it coming.” He hissed through the dark. “Let’s go.”

“You go.” She replied, keeping her eyes on the unfolding situation as the minute men stalked closer. When Winn didn’t let go of her, she shrugged him off. “Go on, get out of here.”

Neither Winn nor Maggie knew what was keeping her frozen to her spot, but it wasn’t about to let her go. Winn finally relented and scurried away down the corridor, the faint closing of the door signifying his exit and leaving Maggie alone.

The man adjusted his collar, swallowing so hard that even Maggie heard him. “Do you mind if I have a moment?” He asked Livewire, gesturing to the bathroom behind Maggie with him thumb.

Livewire glanced beyond him, and Maggie sunk back into the shadows, out of sight. She returned a half-shrug. “I’m an old gal, turned seventy-five two weeks ago. I’m sure I can wait a few moments.”

The man nodded and got up, and as he turned, Maggie dived into the bathroom and hid in a stall. Seconds later she heard the man collapse into the stall beside hers and throw up violently into the toilet, heaving with pain. Maggie had a hand on the lock of her door as she felt one of the gang members leaning on it.

“Are you ready?” The gang member’s gruff voice asked. Maggie’s heart was hammering against her chest so hard and so loud that she was afraid the gang member would hear her through the door.

She could hear the man’s breathing get lighter as he heaved into the toilet again before taking a deep breath.

“I’m ready.” He breathed.

As soon as Maggie saw the shadow of his feet disappear from the floor, she took her opportunity. Unlocking the door, Maggie pulled it back and slammed it into the gang member’s face and knocking him down. The young man was stood next to her, looking at her with a stunned expression.

“What are you-?”

Maggie grabbed his hand. “Come on!” Within seconds they were abandoning the stalls and sprinting down the corridor, Maggie dragging the young man behind her.

Livewire had obviously noticed because Maggie heard a shout and soon the sound of boots clattering after them, getting closer and closer. The man stumbled as they ran, probably due to the amount of drinks that he’d had, but Maggie kept a firm grip on his hand and pulled him with her through the fire exit door.

“What are you doing?” He yelped as Maggie let go once they were in the alleyway.

She slammed the door shut behind them, grunting to push a dumpster in front of it. “I’m saving your life!” She shouted her reply, watching the door for a moment.

It was nearly knocked off of its hinges when the gang ran into it, jostling against the dumpster frantically. Maggie grabbed the man’s hand and tried to pull him out of the alleyway, but he pulled back.

“I can look after myself, thanks! I know what I’m doing!” He told her firmly.

Maggie ogled at him as he stood there haughtily. The door banged again, this time knocking the dumpster back a little. They’d have the door open soon. The man paled so Maggie grabbed his hand again and dragged him behind her. This time he didn’t pull back.

“I’m James Olsen by the way!” He shouted as they escaped the alleyway and stumbled out onto the street. “Where are we going?”

“Maggie Sawyer!” She yelled in reply, letting go of his hand as they sprinted down the road. “Somewhere safe!”

Her heart was still pounding as she ran, she almost didn’t even hear the angry shouts of the gang in the distance as they got away. Maggie could almost laugh: she’d saved someone and she didn’t even know why. If it wasn’t for the time ticking away slowly on her arm, Maggie could’ve run forever.

+

It was another ten minutes of running before Maggie and James found a sanctuary to stay in. It was one of the abandoned warehouses near the train tracks. Its top floor held only a sofa and a wire chair in a massive open plan with a dusty floor and smashed windows.

Both of them were out of breath as they reached the top floor, their hearts feeling like they might jump out of their chests. James flopped onto the sofa, panting with exhaustion whilst Maggie leaned up against a wall to look out a broken window, catching her breath.

“What are you doing?” James breathed tiredly, noticing Maggie glancing around outside.

“Making sure we weren’t followed.” She replied, pulling up the sleeve of her uniform slightly to check her watch. She only had ten hours left, it’d be three by morning. “We should be safe here for the night.”

James noticed her looking at her wrist, and sat up. “Need some time?”

Maggie shook her head as she crossed from the window to the wire chair, flopping down in it tiredly and sighing as she rested her head back. She’d had comfier beds, but she’d also slept on the concrete outside the time banks before, so it could be worse.

“I don’t want anything from you.” She murmured as James produced a flask from the back of his jeans. “Where are you from? Midvale? Metropolis? National City?”

James grinned wistfully, a sad expression flitting across his features. “Is it that obvious?” He took a swig from the flask and offered it to Maggie, grimacing slightly.

Maggie glanced at the flask for a moment, then accepted it and took a drink. The liquid burned the back of her throat and made her splutter, earning a light chuckle from James.

“It gets better.” He assured.

Maggie shot a doubtful look at him and took another gulp. It burned again, but less this time. She scrunched up her nose. “Christ, not by much.” She groaned, returning the flask.

As Maggie swallowed and James put away his flask, he fixed her with an odd look. “How old are you? In real time, I mean.”

Maggie hesitated a moment before answering him, wondering if she could trust him. “Twenty-eight.” She replied after she figured she didn’t trust anyone in Blue Springs anyway. At least the rich cheated people out of their time fairly.

“I’m a hundred and six.” James admitted, his sad expression growing more and more as he sighed down at his clock. “-and I’m tired of living.”

Maggie raised an eyebrow. Had she just let herself into an AA meeting? She didn’t care what the rich did and didn’t have. Then again, she’d just saved the life of a man who didn’t even want to be saved. “You could live forever.” She remarked.

“Nobody should live forever.” James shot back, his voice a little sharp but it didn’t make Maggie flinch, although it caught her attention. He lifted his head solemnly, observing her for a moment. “If one person wanted to live forever, a lot of people must die.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

He shook his head, and waved a dismissive hand. “If you could live forever, what would you do with your time?”

She shrugged. “I wouldn’t waste it.”

That was an understatement. Maggie would do anything and everything if she could live forever. She’d start off by giving herself and everyone else all the time they needed in life, making sure everybody was out of the poverty they didn’t deserve to be in. Hell, if Maggie could, she’d get rid of the clocks forever.

James returned a small smile, seemingly pleased by her simple answer. He glanced at her clock again. “You sure you don’t need any-?”

“I said I don’t want anything from you.” Maggie replied, shuffling to get herself comfy. Her tone wasn’t unkind, but it wasn’t particularly friendly either. In honest truth, nobody’s would be if they had to sleep in a metal chair for the night.

James shrugged again. “Alright. You said your name is Maggie, right?” He asked as he stretched himself back out onto the sofa. If Maggie heard him complain about it she’d put her boot through his throat. “Thanks for saving me, Maggie.”

Maggie curled up a little more, pulling her work uniform closer around her. “Yeah, whatever.” She murmured in reply.

He seemed to finally realise she didn’t want to talk anymore and so instead turned and cradled his head in his chest to go to sleep. It didn’t take Maggie long to fall asleep, although she could hear James shuffling around to try and get comfortable. Thankfully it was a dry evening, so Maggie didn’t have to hear raindrops the size of bullets hammering on the roof above. She slept peacefully.

When she woke again, the little flask was in her hand, and James was gone. Sun shone through the broken window, casting long shadows through the room. Maggie’s back and legs were stiff from the chair, but she tried to ignore the aching. For a moment, she thought maybe the minute men had found them and dragged James away, but then again, if they had then she would be dead on this floor.

The sun was obscuring her view, just at the angle where it shone through the window and into her eyes. As she turned away from it, something on the window attracted her attention. Squinting towards the sun, Maggie saw that it was a message, etched into the dusty pane in scrawled handwriting.

_Don’t waste my time._

Maggie traced over it with her own finger, frowning at it. It was panicked writing, written in a hurry. It went downwards sideways, like the writer’s legs had suddenly buckled mid-word. Maggie traced over it again, her fingers ghosting around the pane. That’s when she noticed it on her arm. She looked down at it, horror and surprise written on her face.

“Holy shit.” She whispered so softly that it didn’t even disturb the air around her. She might as well have mouthed it.

Maggie had a century on her clock. 


	2. Gabriella's Run

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Maggie comes to term with the shock of the clock, a new problem arises.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's no surprise that I took forever is it? Alex introduced in the next episode!

**Money is time. Money is power.**

James Olsen sat upon the railway tracks that morning, with only six moments to spare on his clock. He’d left as soon as the sun had risen, passing his time onto his sleeping saviour, bid her a gentle goodbye and had exited the warehouse unnoticed. The climb up to the tracks from the ground had been difficult, the children he’d seen earlier that day had made it look easy. Nevertheless, he’d managed to do it with a couple of moments to settle himself.  James’ legs dangled over the edge as a gentle breeze floated through the air. He took a deep breath, his shoulders sagging as he exhaled – everything was in place now.

The low whir of his clock ticking down was conscious in his ears, but he barely paid it any intention. Instead, he just stared out at the city calmly. He had ten seconds now – and this was going to be his last view. The sky was still several hues of soft blues and yellows, blurring together like a painting. It was more beautiful than any painting James had ever seen.

**Five.**

The counting had slowed now, getting into its final seconds. The beating of the clock sounded almost like a heart; James noted to himself silently. Maybe there was some human in him.

**Four.**

“Stop!” A faint voice shouted.

James recognised it as Maggie’s, but only opted to close his eyes. He could hear her boots clattering along the metal tracks, sprinting just as fast as she had done last night. James smiled to himself, she didn’t _need_ to anymore.

**Three.**

He wondered how she’d managed to get to him so quickly. Perhaps his silent exit hadn’t been as silent as he’d thought it was.

**Two.**

Maggie’s boots were getting louder and louder as she nearly closed the gap between them. She was quick, quicker than James.

“Please!” Her voice yelled, and this time James could hear the desperation.

**One.**

James opened his eyes wearily, taking one last glimpse at the city around him. He took a deep breath and-

A faint boom signified his time out, and it rang in Maggie’s years like a drum in a storm. She watched in horror and defeat as he seized up as James’ whole body went rigid. The green numbers on his arm were all a deadly black zero and now looked more like a tattoo. In that second, his body pitched forward and he fell from the tracks, with a last gasp erupting from his lungs. Maggie never forgot the crunch she heard as James hit the concrete ground below.

She’d been metres away, mere metres to giving him his century back. Maggie didn’t want it, she wanted it less than anything. A short girl with a century on her clock wouldn’t last an hour in Blue Springs, especially not with people like Livewire hanging around. Glancing over the edge of the tracks, Maggie immediately wished she hadn’t.

Being in Blue Springs, nobody could afford a lie-in, and today was no exception. A few small groups of people were already floating curiously towards James’ twisted body, eyeing the pool of blood around his head. They were on him like vultures, raiding his pockets and bloodied shirt for anything of any value that might buy them a few hours. Maggie ducked back out of sight when people looked up. She couldn’t have anybody seeing her, not with this kind of time on her arm.

Knowing it wouldn’t be long until kids would be climbing the tracks to see where James had fallen from, Maggie quickly began to make her route home. She tucked her hands under her arms, feigning that she was freezing cold despite the warmth covering the city. The quicker she got home; the less likely people would see her.

As she walked, Maggie couldn’t stop thinking about the clock on her arm. She’d always thought that if she ever had more than year on it again, she wouldn’t feel the need to look at her arm: but she was wrong. That was all she wanted to do. Just to stare at those numbers, make sure they were real and that she wasn’t dreaming. It felt like a dream, or a nightmare. She couldn’t tell which.

A voice shook her from her reverie.

“Hey Mags!”

Winn collided jokingly into her side, although it was evident that he was relieved to see her again. “You’re okay!”

Maggie returned a nervous smile, not letting it reach her eyes or her dimples. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.” She muttered, wrapping her arms tighter around herself as Winn threw his arm around her shoulders.

“Where were you? What happened? Did you get rid of the minute men?”

Winn found himself being dragged into an alleyway with Maggie pinning him up against the grubby wall with her hand over his mouth. She glanced around, her eyes scanning above, below, left, right and even behind them.

“Stop talking.” She hissed sharply under her breath.

After a confused moment, Winn nodded and she let go. “Why, what the hell is the matter?” He shouted at her in a hushed whisper. “Did the minute men get the rich guy? _Are you working for them_?”

Maggie scoffed, throwing an ugly glare at her friend. “Don’t be stupid.” She muttered. After a moment, Maggie cleared her scowl and refreshed her features. “Winn, how long have we been friends?”

“What?”

_“How long have we been friends?”_

Winn shrugged, relaxing a little. “I don’t know, nine maybe ten years?”

Maggie took hold of his arm, digging her fingers into it slightly. Winn’s frown widened into shock as ten years ran rapidly from Maggie’s arm to his. Maggie let go of his hand the moment the year hit ten, feeling relieved to have less time on her. Winn still stared at her in amazement.

“Where did you get all that?” He asked, his voice no higher than a mumble as he finally understood the gravity of the situation.

“That guy from the bar last night.” She admitted, tucking her arms back into her chest whilst all the time keeping a watchful eye out. “He timed himself out.”

Winn’s frown reappeared, and the two started walking out of the alleyway, side by side so closely that nobody passing would hear their conversation. “Timed himself out? With all those years on his clock?”

Maggie shrugged. “Spouted some crap about nobody should live forever.” She scoffed, rolling her eyes.

“You believe that.” Winn pointed out.

“Yeah, that’s what’s pissed me off.” Maggie scowled under her breath. “Couldn’t he have given this to someone who should actually use it? I’ve got all I want here.”

Winn moved his head as they walked. “So maybe this is your opportunity to do some good, leave Blue Springs and find a better life.”

“What? And leave everybody here to die?” She tilted her head. “I can’t do that, Winn.”

Winn was grinning stupidly at her from the corner of her eye. “That’s what I love about you, Maggie. You’re so kind, so selfless, amazingly brave-“

“Winn.”

“Yeah?”

“Shut up.”

Winn grinned, throwing his arm around her shoulders.  “You love me.” He chuckled. “So, come on then, who was this guy? This mysterious timed out millionaire?”

Maggie shrugged again. “He said his name was James Olsen. Seemed like an asshole if you ask me.”

Her friend suddenly gripped her shoulder much tighter. He paused. “James Olsen? Like _the_ James Olsen? That’s who you saved?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Yes?”

“Maggie-“ Winn stopped her. “That guy is worth _thousands_ of years! Do you know what’ll happen to you if the Time Keepers find out you took from him?”

“But I didn’t steal from him, Winn.” Maggie replied in a hushed tone, keeping aware of her surroundings. “He gave-“

“You think they’ll believe that?”

“Good point.”

“Come on, we need to get out of here.”

++

Maggie managed to make it back to her apartment without her clock being spotted whilst Winn went to go and get himself a drink from the bar. It was boring, watching the world go by, almost like watching paint dry. She hadn’t been able to stop staring at her clock either.

Was it real? Was she only dreaming?

She hated it and she loved it. Maggie wanted to be down in the streets splitting her time evenly between the citizens of Blue Springs, but even if it got them a bed and a meal, it wouldn’t be anyway near enough. Taxes and quotas would merely just keep increasing, making it more expensive to live and then they’d all be fucked again. Maggie only wanted to help.

Then again, she wanted to rip the time off of every National City clock and see how they liked it. She wanted to watch them suffer like the people they exploited every day, to not be able to spend time with their loved ones, or spend time practising hobbies. Hell, she’d love to see people from National City spend a day _working_.

Maggie didn’t know what to do.

As the evening rolled in, Maggie got changed into different clothes to prepare herself to go and meet her aunt at the bus stop. She ditched her work uniform for a pale purple, long-sleeved shirt with a grey t-shirt over the top. Pulling the long-sleeve down self-consciously, Maggie was reminded of Laurel Harkness as she left her apartment and began her walk down to the bus stop.

As she walked, Maggie knew how the girl must’ve felt, walking around with more time than most on their arm. It was terrifying, just trying to subtly conceal it was hard enough. Looking over her shoulder every five seconds, wondering if she was being followed or watched felt like a spider was crawling up her back and tickling her neck. Maggie was so lost in thought that she didn’t even notice the body lying on the street outside Birdie’s grocery store.

In fact, she nearly tripped over it.

It was a man, with a long scruffy beard and the numbers on his wrist all a jet-black zero. Probably couldn’t afford a razor, the poor bastard, Maggie thought to herself as she stepped over him. She gazed at him for a moment. His expression was the same as James had been before he’d fallen, one of seized pain and sadness. It was morbid, that he was just laying out on the street like this. Nobody to care for him, nobody to bury him.

Maggie was starting to know what James meant now. _If one person wanted to live forever, a lot of people must die._ She glared at the body, and wondered how long he’d been twenty-five for. Was he older than Maggie? Maybe younger? If he was old, why decide to time out in front of a _grocery store_? If everybody could live forever, she thought, where would we put them all?

She tried to push it out of her mind by heading into Birdie’s, picking up a small bouquet of flowers. Really, she wanted to get the biggest one available for her well-deserving aunt but she had a cover to keep. If anyone, even the store worker, noticed her getting an unusually pricy set of flowers, suspicion may arise. The store’s lights were glitching, flickering on and off occasionally, and it smelled of stale milk. _Yeah_ , Maggie thought, it was best to keep a low profile.

Maggie paid, keeping in mind to keep her clock out of sight beneath her shirt before turning and going to head out.

“Wait.”

Maggie froze. She looked over her shoulder to see the guy at the till fixing her with a curious look, and her heart thudded in her chest. He must’ve seen her clock through her sleeve.

“Uh, yeah?” She managed, trying to keep her voice steady as she turned around.

He removed himself from the till and approached. “I’m, uh, about to close up and I was wondering-“ The guy shuffled from one foot to another awkwardly, and Maggie inwardly groaned. She hoped he wasn’t about to ask what she thought. “If maybe you have five minutes? The walk is kind of long and I’m pretty tired-“

“Sure thing.” Maggie interrupted, not wanting this conversation to drag on any longer than it had to. He held out his wrist and Maggie gave him his five, keeping her clock hidden and instead keeping awkward eye contact. After a few seconds, she let go and he smiled gratefully.

“Thanks.”

“Have a good night.” She returned, taking her flowers and leaving in a hurried manner.

Maggie was out of the street before the store worker could even turn the store lights out.

**++**

Across town, Gabriella sighed with relief as the bus finally trundled to her stop. It was five minutes late, and her clock was ticking worriedly low. It was night time, the road was only lit by the orange glow of the streetlamps and cast long dark shadows over the alleyways and winding paths. Gabriella shuddered, nobody wanted to be out in Blue Springs at night. As always, she politely let the other people get on before her.

“Single to Corner road, please.” She asked as she held out her wrist onto the paying machine.

“S’two hours.” The driver murmured lazily, a bored expression crossing his face in a sluggish motion as he stared out the window.

Gabriella retracted her hand. “What? It was one yesterday.” She protested. “I only have an hour and a half.”

The driver just shrugged. He didn’t care. “I don’t make the rules.”

“It’s a two-hour walk!”

He turned his attention her, looking her up and down. “Listen, lady, either get on the bus or don’t. I don’t care.” He jutted his thumb at the other passengers. “You’re wasting everyone’s time.”

“Listen, my niece is waiting for me at the stop. She-she can pay when we get there, oh-okay?”

The driver just looked at her with his mouth open which made her more frustrated.

“Please! F-fuck…for gods sake!” She tried not to get teary, knowing that wouldn’t get her anywhere. “Just let me on the fu-fucking bus, please.”

The driver emphasised his point. Gabriella followed his thumb with a pleading gaze. When she was met with only despising and annoyed looks, she forfeited and stepped back off the bus. She let it go, only getting in an unsatisfactory slap of the bus’s side as it drove off. It wasn’t going to help, but it was going to make her feel better for now anyways.

She had to make a two-hour journey fit into less than half an hour. Gabriella looked down the road after the bus’s fleeting presence. It was getting darker and darker by the minute, as was her clock. She took a deep breath, and began running.

++

Maggie knew something was wrong when the bus pulled away from her stop, and Gabriella did not get off. Her aunt wasn’t on the bus, and she wasn’t one to sleep past her stop. Maggie watched the bus drive away after people got off, waiting until it had disappeared around a corner until she moved again. She caught the wrist of one of the retreating residents.

“Have you seen my aunt?” She questioned firmly.

The woman she holding onto just shrugged and so Maggie let her go roughly, scoffing a frustrated curse under her breath. God help her if anyone helped anyone in Blue Springs. She stared around in a bleak hope that her aunt would come walking around the corner with some hilarious excuse as to why she wasn’t on the bus.

But Gabriella wasn’t anywhere.

With her heart sinking, Maggie discarded the flowers and set off at a sprint. Luckily she’d ridden the same route a couple of times before, and so knew the way. She only hoped she could get there in time.

It was an hour and twenty-eight minutes when the two women finally caught view of each other. Gabriella’s burgundy red dress was filthy, dirtied by the dust of the streets and her knees were scraped. Her long, caramel brown hair was mussed and tangled around her shoulders.

“Gabriella?” Maggie shouted, keeping up her sprint even though it felt like her lungs might explode. She’d been running for over an hour now, and her legs were about to buckle.

“Maggie!” Gabriella screamed breathlessly, although the desperation wasn’t hard to hear from this distance. She was running as hard as she could but she was nowhere as fit as Maggie was and struggled more and more with each stride.

The clock on her wrist was at ten seconds now, and Maggie was still at least fifty metres away. Gabriella was exhausted. The scrapes on her knees were stinging and her heart pounded against her ribs as she tried to keep running. It felt like somebody was rubbing sand paper against her throat as it ran dry and she gasped for air.

Tears streamed down Maggie’s cheeks as her boots clattered over the street, pushing herself to run harder and harder. Her calves were complaining against her, but she did her best to ignore them. Maggie’s only priority was her aunt. She was so close now; she could see the fear in her aunt’s eyes, the rare grey hairs that hung in front of her face flitting around her eyebrows and the sweat that beaded down her forehead. She was so _close_. Maggie was going to make it. _She was so close_.

Then Gabriella was falling, so close that Maggie caught her and hit the ground with her, tearing her jeans as she did. The pair landed in a gravelly heap, Maggie cutting her knees on the ground as her aunt landed on top of her. As she tried to move Gabriella so she could get to her arm, Maggie noticed how heavy the other woman was on top of her.

“Gab-? Gabriella?” She mumbled against her aunt’s chest as she tried to push her back with her head.

Gabriella’s head fell back lifelessly, her torso only held up by Maggie’s grip on her shoulders. Her eyes were wide open, her mouth hanging open in a frozen ‘o’ of horror. She was heavy against Maggie’s arms.

“No no no no no no-“ Maggie whimpered. She wrapped her hand around Gabriella’s wrist, her fingers digging deeper and deeper into the skin in her panic. “Please!”

Maggie cradled Gabriella’s head in her arms, her tears splashing onto her aunt’s lifeless face. She held her tighter and tighter, clinging to her warmth and rocking her as if she were a baby. The zeros on her wrist were burned black against her olive brown skin, like someone had branded her. Maggie felt hollow inside as she continued rocking her aunt in her arms.

The street was empty, filled only with the noise of Maggie’s rugged sobs that softened into whimpering cries as the sun broadened over the horizon. She sat there all evening, just hugging her as close as possible. Gabriella was dead, and Maggie’s only family member was gone.

Maggie was alone in the world.


	3. The Timekeepers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Maggie recovers from the death of her aunt, James Olsen's body is found.

James’ body was officially found and confirmed almost twenty-four hours after his death. He was laying, face-down, in a pool of blood that had originated from his fall. His shirt was gone, in fact all of his clothes were. It was the Timekeepers that had found him, after following up on a missing report and finding that a century had entered Blue Springs.

Timekeepers were essentially the police of the zones, keeping security on stolen time and disposing of timed out citizens. Dressed in ankle-length leather coats, black trousers and knee-length boots: they might be mistaken as extras for The Matrix. Not many people, especially Blue Springs residents, didn’t hold a warm relationship with the Timekeepers. Rick Malverne, their leader, bore the scars of those residents – most noticeably on his left cheek where a long, thin line dragged from his eye down to the corner of his mouth and slackened his features on his left side whenever he smiled. Thankfully, he didn’t smile very much.

Standing above James’ now covered body, Rick breathed in the Blue Springs air. “Still shit.” He muttered with a scowl.

Out of all of the time zones, Blue Springs was Rick’s least favourite. He hated it, with a passion. Its dirty streets, it’s even dirtier citizens: it all stank. Rudy, Rick’s colleague, was crouched down by James’ arm and held it up.

“Thirteen zeros. Unlucky for all.” He remarked, letting the dead arm go and standing up as Rick paced around him. “The last time anyone saw him alive, there was over a century on that clock.”

Rick shrugged, coming to a halt. “Well, around here, they’d kill you for a week.” He said, looking around.

“What was he doing in this time zone?” Another colleague asked, earning a small smirk from Rick. At least he wasn’t the only one noticing how rundown Blue Springs was.

“Maybe he brought this on himself.” Rudy replied, looking to Rick.

“Interesting.” Rick remarked with a plain tone. “How long have you been keeping time, Rudy?”

“Five years.”

“Let me know what you think when you’ve been doing it for _fifty_.” Rick scoffed, rolling his eyes. “It doesn’t matter why he came here. What matters are the hundred years that came with him.”

Rudy shuffled awkwardly on his feet, evidently a little rattled by Rick’s jab. “There’s got to be a witness.”

Rick scoffed another laugh, shaking his head. “Trust me, nobody saw anything. We need to follow the time.” He mentioned, nodding up to a security camera hanging from a nearby building.

Without another word he turned and headed to his car, much like the taxis in National City except with a white stripe and not a blue. As he opened a door, a woman from across the street called out to him.

“Hey Rick, ten minutes for an hour?” She offered, winking to him as if he would be able to see it.

Rick looked back at her, disgusted. “When are you going to get out of the game, Eliza? What are you, pushing seventy?”

She flipped him off as he got into his car and drove away. “Thanks for letting everybody know, _asshole_.”

 

+

The aftermath of Gabriella’s death planted a bitter seed in Maggie’s heart. It hadn’t taken her long to find out that the bus rates had gone up, nor had it taken her long to hunt down the number for a taxi out of Blue Springs. There was nothing left for her here, and everywhere she looked, Maggie hated. Everything she’d once loved, she now despised. The gothic railway tracks that she once thought elegant, now towered above like a spider’s web, webbing tighter and tighter around the mausoleum-like buildings like a fly wriggling in its grasp. Maggie felt like she might drown in the dust that her boots kicked up as it clung to her nose and eyes. She hated it, kicking it harder.

She’d had to leave Gabriella in the street. Even after laying by her side in the street all night, Maggie hadn’t been strong enough to pick her aunt up or even drag her home. Where would she _put_ her anyway? Maggie vowed to never walk down that street again.

The Sawyer woman was lost in her thoughts when the taxi finally trundled up to road outside her home. It was a sleek, fancy black car unlike Maggie had ever seen. Nobody could afford cars in Blue Springs, so Maggie rarely saw one anyway, but this one was all kinds of new. With a streak of dark blue up the middle and four shiny white wheels, it looked like one of the faded posters that she saw on billboards around the city. _Funny_ , Maggie thought, the posters had made them out to be the fanciest car of the century and here they were, using them as _taxis_.

The driver, dressed in a deep red tuxedo, wound the window down and glanced Maggie up and down, fixing her with an unimpressed look. “Don’t usually get service around here.” He said, glancing at Maggie’s watch as she rolled the sleeve of her only blazer up.

“Can you get me to National City?” She replied, ignoring his prior statement. Her patience for the upper class had waned dramatically over the past evening.

The driver shrugged as she got into the back seat. “Anywhere in particular?”

Maggie shook her head. “Don’t know. As long as its away from here.” She muttered in a low growl, indicating her urgency to leave.

Eventually, the taxi lifted and hummed away from Maggie’s place and made its way through the streets. As it trundled through the streets, Maggie gazed out the window, finding it difficult to focus on only the back of the driver’s oily head. Although she was still fuming and heartbroken, she found herself missing Blue Springs already. The abandoned and worn-down park where her aunt had pushed her on the swings, the bar where Maggie and Winn had bought each other’s first drink and the old haunts where she’d spent her school days: Maggie knew deep down that she would miss it. Not right now, perhaps, but soon she would.

It was another twenty minutes until the taxi stopped outside a barricade of black and yellow with a sign beside it reading ‘ZONE 12’ in big, black font. Maggie sighed. The numerous cities and towns were divided by time zones to keep classes of people apart. There was a price to pay to cross each one, and the further someone went, the higher the price.

 _“Please dispense one month.”_ The payment machine read in its usual monotone voice between the seats.

Maggie raised an eyebrow as she held her wrist over it. She could see why nobody left Blue Springs: people were lucky to have a day on them, let alone a month _. Hell_ , Maggie would’ve been stuck there forever.

The barrier lifted, and the taxi drove on. Crumbling cities turned to blue skies and rolling fields, sights that Maggie never thought could be real. Places where people lived in lush green forests and had the time to ride horses and manage farms without worrying about how long they had to live. Soon, the farming zones blended into huge skyscrapers and glittering lakes as the zone prices increased.

As they crossed the last time, Maggie looked even more surprised. “That was a _year_.” She commented to the driver.

He glanced back at her in the rear-view mirror as they drove onwards. “Welcome to National City.”

Maggie stared out the window, ogling in her new adventure. Buildings reached almost as tall as the clouds, and sparkled in the warm presence of the sunshine. People walked around in fine suits and glamourous gowns, each and every one of them more beautiful than the last. Maggie wondered how old they were. She’d never believed the stories back in Blue Springs about people who had enough time to live to a thousand, but as the taxi passed more and more fancy restaurants and art galleries, she wouldn’t be surprised to learn if those stories were true.

After a few moments of driving around, the taxi dropped Maggie at one of the restaurants which was thankfully joined with a hotel. As it drove away and Maggie jogged to the entrance, she was suddenly reminded that she didn’t even need to. Hell, she’d never have to run again. Maggie glanced around, wondering if she’d attracted any attention to herself before slipping inside the hotel. Unknown to her, a woman nearby had just stepped out of her chauffeur-driven car and was watching the Blue Springs girl intently.

She was dressed in a deep, blue button-up shirt with a black blazer over the top and the sleeves rolled to just above her elbows. The trousers matched the blazer and were paired with a pair of moderate heels. Her left arm was covered from her wrist to mid-forearm by a single silver gauntlet with intricate patterns carved into it whilst the other arm was bare save for a small silver band around her wrist. The woman’s hair, which was a dark red, hung above her shoulders and framed her slim face beautifully.

Her bodyguard followed her gaze, always on her lookout. “Be careful of strangers, Miss Danvers.” He advised, watching Maggie’s fleeting figure closely. “Especially ones not from around here.”

The woman’s eyes didn’t leave Maggie’s body, even after she’d disappeared around a corner within the hotel. “Appearances can be deceptive, J’onn.” She murmured.

+++

At the Timekeeper’s HQ, Maggie was being watched by more than the redhead. The tiny woman was screened on several televisions, all longer than her arm span and bigger than she was. Rick and his colleagues had been watching her intently ever since she’d gone through Midvale.

“She’s fast.” Rudy commented, watching as Maggie checked into a hotel.

“She’s going to have to be.” Rick replied, untucking his hands from his long leather coat. He loathed Maggie. There was something about her that just ticked him off, perhaps she reminded him of someone.

“The camera doesn’t show us how the body got into the river.” Rudy tilted his head to the screen that had been replaying James’ fall over and over for about an hour now. “What do we really know?”

 _“What….do…we…really….know?”_ Rick repeated in a heavy, annoyed sigh. “We know that most thefts in Blue Springs amount to hours or perhaps days. This was a century. I don’t see any more in circulation.”

“Maybe he capsuled it?” Another colleague suggested.

Rick shook his head. “You can’t hide a hundred years in the ghetto. It’s like they can sense when a man has a month more than they should. The time left down.” He deduced, staring at one of the zone’s maps coldly.

A moment of silence crossed the three Timekeepers, the only noise was the clicking of computers and other machinery. After a while, the third Timekeeper, Jud, spoke up.

“Sir, you’re right.” He said, lighting up a little. “If you turn back the clocks the day of Olsen’s death, and look at the time checks, someone spent years crossing four different time zones from Blue Springs to –“

“National City?” Rick cut him off, beginning to stride towards their exit and gesturing for his two minions to follow. “She’s not hard to pick up. She runs, she has no bodyguard and she’s conscious of surveillance.”

He gestured to one of the screens that showed Maggie looking directly at one of the security cameras on her hotel balcony and ducked away from it hurriedly.

“She has time though, why does she need to run?” Jud questioned.

“Hard habit to break. Do we have any match on the woman?”

Jud pulled up his screen, clicked a few buttons, waited awkwardly and then provided his new-found information. “Yeah, Margarita Sawyer. More commonly known as Maggie, according to this. She’s a Blue Springs resident.”

Rick’s face twisted into an ugly smear, his scar stretching so his eye popped open wider in an almost cartoon-ish manner. He snarled at the headshot that had appeared on Jud’s screen, loathing every single one of Maggie’s features. That’s where he knew her from.

Almost as if reading his mind, Rudy spoke up. “You know her?”

Rick’s frown deepened. “No. But I remember her father.”

+

The moment Maggie had booked herself a room (an executive suite that cost her a week a day), she immediately headed into the restaurant and began wolfing down almost every meal on the menu. Maggie couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a meal, nor did she remember even _entering_ a restaurant. She was so involved in her food that she almost didn’t notice the waitress bringing her another course of food.

“You’ll want to slow down with that.” The waitress commented with a smile.

Maggie paused mid-bite and looked the waitress up and down, trying to detect whether she was being genuine or not. She was used to fake niceness but judging by the big innocent eyes the waitress was fixing her with, maybe Maggie was actually making a friend.

“Why’s that?” Maggie cocked a small smile.

The waitress paused a moment, seemingly sensing Maggie’s genuine question to her own. She refreshed her face with another smile. “You’re not from around here, are you?”

Maggie’s smile vanished. “What do you mean by that?” She said sharply, setting down her fork with a clatter. “Is it obvious?”

“I didn’t mean any offence, it’s just- you do everything a little too fast.“ The waitress indicated to Maggie’s eating style and worn blazer with her pen. When Maggie looked up at her expectantly, she gestured outside. “There’s a clothing store next to the casino. It’s around the corner.”

Maggie stared for a moment, then grinned again _. Thank God for halfway nice people_. “Thanks” She held out her wrist to pay for her meals. “Take a week for yourself.”

+

Once she’d bought herself some new clothes and freshened up, Maggie decided to go to the casino. If she was going to achieve her dream, that being to provide more time to all of Blue Springs, she needed more time herself.

The Sawyer woman had bought herself a tux, just like the ones she’d seen in newsagent windows with the women that had high white-collar blouses and long coattail blazers that reached all the way down their backs. Maggie felt powerful as she strode into the casino, as if she was eleven feet tall, even if she couldn’t have been more out of place.

The casino was even fancier than the restaurant, if that was at all possible. Chandeliers bigger than Maggie hung from high golden ceilings, and glittered so brightly that Maggie would need sunglasses to look directly at it. Golden patterns had been carved and etched into the rose-pink panelled walls, some in the form of little angels and cherubs, others in the form of dragons and mythical creatures that some of them even Maggie couldn’t name. There was one of a dog in the corner of one grand fireplace that she quickly decided was her favourite as she walked past it.

The whole place was humming with activity, filled with men and women in fancy outfits chatting and laughing over large glasses of alcohol and pint-sized snacks. A man, dressed in a tuxedo similar to Maggie, was greeting guests as they walked past. When she reached him, he moved to stand in front of her.

“Good evening.” He greeted, although his tone was flat as was his expression.

Maggie knew he’d pegged her as not being from around here. So much for the tuxedo. “My time is as good as anyone’s.”

“It is. There’s also a… _voluntary donation…_ for non-members.” The man said with a smile, although Maggie didn’t miss the greedy glint in his eye. “Most give a year.”

She resisted a scoff, sticking out her wrist and giving a year to his capsule. He smiled, putting it away and refreshed his ‘rich people’ face.

“So, what’s your game?”

 


	4. We're Not In Kansas Anymore

**Life is paid out a minute at a time.**

Maggie was seated at a poker table five minutes later. On her left, sat a pale woman with dark hair and a man with a sneer on his face. On her right, a bald man with a small, blonde woman who appeared to be his companion. Finally, across from her was a man with short but sleek black hair and muscles wider than Maggie’s head. He had two bodyguards behind him, although with muscles that size Maggie didn’t know why he needed them. _To show off_.

In the middle of the green table was a small, silver box with a circular black screen on it. On the black screen were thirteen red zeros that was broadcasted on each side of the box. Maggie eyed it, pretending she wasn’t noticing the way the dark-haired man was peering at her. The table was silent and stiff until he spoke, a broad National City accent that seemed to be masking a soft, Midvale one.

“I don’t believe we’ve had the pleasure of _your_ company before, Miss…”

“Sawyer.” Maggie provided. His tone didn’t invite warmth despite his face attempting to and judging by the silence of the table, it was probably best to answer as she was asked. “Maggie Sawyer.”

“Jeremiah Danvers.” He replied, his eyes looking at the left sleeve of Maggie’s tuxedo. “You must come from time.”

She’d rolled it up slightly, just to show the other casino attendees that she ‘belonged’ here too. Everybody outside covered up their clocks, but not in here. Dresses had short sleeves and mens’ shirts were rolled up to their elbows. This is where people flaunted their money.

“You could say I’m gambling my inheritance.” Maggie remarked, regarding her arm carefully.

Jeremiah eyed the empty space behind the newcomer. “You don’t have a guard, Miss Sawyer?” He observed as Maggie took a drink of the champagne that had been laid out on the table.

Maggie looked around the table. The sneering man was chewing the side of his mouth, the two women looked politely intrigued and the bald man smirked at Maggie’s lack of security.

“I made the assumption I was amongst…friends.” Maggie murmured, quietly noting the two absent chairs beside Jeremiah and the dealer.

Jeremiah laughed, a deep barrel-like laughter, but again there was no warmth to it. Hollow, like a barrel, and void of happiness. He unsettled Maggie greatly. “Of course. Let me introduce you.”

The pale woman was revealed to be Lena Luthor, heiress to the LuthorCorp fortune in Metropolis, the zone over, and the sister of the bald-headed man sat to Maggie’s right. This was Lex Luthor, CEO of the whole of LuthorCorp which Maggie understood to be a company that sold new forms of clocks that could hide the amount of time on your arm instead of wearing the fancy jewellery. Mr Luthor described it as ‘developing time for international clients’ which sounded greatly like _‘I make weapons for our government’,_ to Maggie. Lena seemed nice enough, sweet even, and Maggie didn’t miss the disgusted look she often gazed at her brother with.

The blonde woman, who Maggie noticed had a clipboard in her lap, was introduced as Lex’s assistant, Eve. She seemed nice enough, but Maggie knew to watch out for the quiet ones.

Finally, the man beside Lena was introduced as Maxwell Lord who was a man with shares linking to the Timekeepers organisation. An incredibly smug man, who Maggie could tell had never been told no. Although the Timekeepers essentially ran themselves, she wouldn’t be surprised if they took bribes from rick boys like Maxwell. She hated him immediately.

Jeremiah’s arm slipped under the table to be scanned by a reader. “Bet you fifty years to get this game started, eh?” He noticed with a smirk how Maggie tightened her jaw, thinking himself to be impressive when in reality, Maggie was almost shaking with disgust. On the box, _six hundred_ and fifty years appeared on the red digits. “You must be young. When you’ve been twenty-five for _eighty-five_ years, like I have, knowing only a random act of violence can take your life, you learn to appreciate what you have.”

 _Bullshit,_ Maggie’s mind seethed with loathing that struggled to keep her poker face down. Instead, she swallowed and raised her chin slightly as she shuffled her cards. “And you seem to have a lot to appreciate.” She challenged.

Jeremiah raised an eyebrow, and pulled his left sleeve up a little. Maggie resisted the urge to let out a scoff, and so instead put her arm under her own reader.

“I call.” She said, adding another fifty.

Jeremiah opened his mouth to continue but was interrupted by the arrival of two newcomers. One, a blonde, was followed by two bodyguards whilst the other, a redhead, was accompanied by one. Jeremiah smiled at their presence as they chose the chairs beside him and the dealer. The redhead ignored him, her eyes capturing Maggie as she sat down.

“Of course, some think what we have is unfair.” Jeremiah continued, recognising at the eye contact between the redhead and Maggie. “The time difference between zones.”

Maggie broke the contact, her eyes dragging to Jeremiah. “I’ve heard that.”

He dragged his fingers across his clock slowly, admiring it with a greedy glint to his eye. “But isn’t this just the next logical step in our evolution? Hasn’t evolution always been unfair? It’s always been survival of the fittest.”

The blonde, who was chatting quietly and seemingly happily with Lena, ignored Jeremiah’s conversation but the redhead was watching and listening intently, her dark eyes almost daring Maggie to speak up. When Maggie didn’t reply, Jeremiah’s arm returned to the reader:

“Raise you another two centuries.” He challenged calmly, raising the box to nine-hundred now. “This is merely Darwinian capitalism. _Natural selection_.”

“ _Here, here.”_ Lex chimed, raising his champagne and taking a long drink of it. 

Maggie glared at him, in her imagination. As if the other woman could read her mind, she offered a wicked smile which Maggie did not return. Instead, her eyes flicked back to Jeremiah. “Absolutely. The strong survive. But I think your hand is weak. I call.”

Again, her arm returned to the reader and added only enough time to leave her with thirty seconds on her arm. This caught the attention of the table and they ogled at the sight of such low clock time. Maggie imagined they’d never seen one so low before. The redhead stared at it, raising out of her seat ever so slightly, and her expression could come across as almost _worried_.

“It appears you’re all in, Miss Sawyer.” Maxwell remarked, watching Jeremiah for his next move.

Jeremiah threw down his cards, the queen of spades and the queen of clubs. Maggie returned it with her own eight of hearts and four of spades. The dealer pulled from his line the two winning cards, resulting in a small smile from Maggie that was neither friendly nor triumphant. With only five seconds left, she moved her arm onto the reader and watched her clock increase at the speed of sound.

The rest of the table reserved their impressed looks for later but as the redhead sat back down and tightened her jaw, Maggie didn’t miss the smile that tugged at her lips for a brief second. Maggie’s clock stopped increasing. _One thousand, one hundred years_.

“Thirteen figures.” Jeremiah murmured. Maggie could tell she’d rattled him with her win, noting the unnerved and vague expression his face. “Well played. That was some risk.”

Jeremiah stood, and so did the rest of the table. Maggie pulled down her sleeve, fixing the cuff as she spoke again. “It wasn’t a risk.” She murmured, watching the redhead walk past her. “No offense, I knew I was going to win.”

Jeremiah chuckled, throwing a blazer onto his large frame. “Confusing times.” He said, following his gaze to the redhead who had paused at the top of the stairs. “Is she my mother, my sister or my daughter? You’re hoping she’s not my wife. Things used to be simple once. So I’m told.”

Maggie tilted her head. “Very beautiful.” She regarded. That was an understatement. The moment Maggie had spotted the redhead, she thought her to be one of the most gorgeous people she’d ever seen. Underneath her button-up, even Maggie could spy a toned stomach clinging to the fabric with lean and strong arms that hugged her frame. The arc of her jaw, the tone of her eyes and the red of her hair: Maggie thought her to be ethereal.

Jeremiah nodded his agreement, following the woman’s path past Maggie. “Daughter.” He commented. “Though she does look a lot like my wife. Alexandra?”

The redhead turned, although she looked like she was looking for someone, and offered a polite smile to Maggie who nodded her own greeting.

“Maggie Sawyer.” Jeremiah introduced.

Alexandra raised an eyebrow. “Congratulations, Miss Sawyer. You’ve taken years off my father’s life.” She said in a tone that didn’t sound accusatory, nor was it angry. In fact, she sounded thankful.

“That’s normally what you do, am I right?” Jeremiah twisted a smile.

“We’re having a party tomorrow night. Perhaps you’ll give him a chance to win back some of those years.”

Maggie didn’t smile, but lightened her tone to imply her gratuity. “I’d love to.”

Jeremiah didn’t look totally approved on that, but he didn’t look like he was about to tell his daughter no. “Very well. Goodnight, Miss Sawyer. My guards will tell you where I am. Alexandra, stay with your guards.” He told her as he walked down the stairs to rejoin the party below.

She waited until he was gone before flashing another look at Maggie, glancing her up and down. “My name is Alex, by the way.” She told her, and then descended after her father.

Maggie watched her walk away, thinking the redhead to be an odd but wonderful kind of creature. One that didn’t walk with the same crowds she was heading towards. She smiled as Alex disappeared from sight.

++

Alex Danvers didn’t leave Maggie’s mind for the rest of the day, and it kept her up at night as well. The look of those shining brown eyes, the way her red hair framed her face perfectly and the smile that would tug across her face and vanish as it quickly as it would appear. It gave Maggie butterflies, goose-bumps, the heebie-jeebies, raised the hair on the back of her neck – whatever you wanted to call it: it drove Maggie wild.

She was embarrassed to admit to herself that she’d had to go into her en-suite a couple of times because of it.

It was dangerous to like Alex, Maggie knew that. _Extremely dangerous_. Everybody knew who the Danvers family were, even in Blue Springs. Their name was above every time bank in the country, even the one that was practically useless in Maggie’s town. People would line up outside it each day to see if there was any time they could claim, even if it was just a minute. There never was. Yes, liking Alex, was dangerous.

Maggie didn’t know what her plan was: all she knew was that she had to make the people of National City pay. In the two days she’d been here, she’d already met enough influential people to be certain that this was the place to execute her plan. Whatever plan that was.

It was only until the next afternoon that Maggie eventually managed to get Alex out of her mind. Noticing how she was having to walk practically everywhere, and knowing she’d probably be wanted at some point in her plan, Maggie would need a car.

So, there she was, sat in probably the nicest car she’d ever seen with her hands on the comfy leather-studded wheel, Maggie admired the 1969 Jaguar XK-E convertible. It was a sleek, silver colour on the outside with fancy dark red leather seats. Maggie thought she had Alex out of her mind until she noticed the red of the seats matched the colour of Alex’s hair.

“Fifty-nine years?” She squinted up at the salesman, who was blocking out the sun with his presence.

He nodded. “Plus tax.”

Maggie looked from him to the car, wondering whether it was worth it. She tried to imagine driving it through a huge mountain range with the wind blowing through her hair because of its open top. She imagined the sun glinting off of its beautiful silver bonnet and bouncing off the front screen. With a smile, she held her arm out for the scanner.

“Price includes delivery.” The salesman added, shaking her from her reverie. “To wherever you’re going to display it.”

“Display it?” Maggie echoed _. Another gross action from the rich_. She grinned, clutching the wheel tighter.

 

“Hell, I’m going to _drive_ it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, sorry this was kind of short but things start to get interesting in our next chapter!


	5. Girls Behind Masks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Attending the Danvers party, Maggie finds her situation takes a turn for the worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have this fat chapter. x

**“you deserve to have a real, full, happy life.”**

**\- Maggie Sawyer**

If anyone at the Danvers party had asked who had styled Maggie’s hair that evening, she would’ve had to simply have replied with ‘the wind’. It would’ve been true. Driving through the mountains in the outer circle of National City had sent her hair in all directions, making it wild and almost stand on end. Still dressed in her tuxedo from the previous day (she had changed out of it for sleep), Maggie arrived at the Danvers party about half an hour later than Jeremiah’s bodyguard had told her.

She blamed it on the car. Driving it was thrilling as the wind whipped it onto her face and blew her hair out behind her. Hearing the purring growl of the engine grow into a mighty roar ignited a fire inside of Maggie as they cruised through the swirling roads and pine green trees. She loved driving the Jag so much that she almost missed the turning to the Danvers home.

House was an understatement. Danvers _Manor_ was huge, the biggest building that Maggie had ever seen. Built into the mountain it resided in, it was at least three stories high, without the consideration for a basement or an attic, and seemed to almost be more glass than wall in places. Huge windows, double Maggie’s height, stretched from second story to first with huge golden drapes framing them either side. It looked like that big white house from Maggie’s old school history books. Massive white pillars, four of them in total, held up a deep green tiled roof that matched the pine trees surrounding the house. She thought it extravagant, to say the least.

It was already full of party-goers, rich men and women dressed in even fancier gowns and suits with extravagant makeup combinations. As Maggie drove into the vast parking area at the side of the mansion, she passed a woman in a striped dress that was dyed into three colours. She thought she looked like a technicolour zebra. A man held his hand out to Maggie, and it took her a few moments to realise he was a valet. She got out of the Jag and passed him the keys, heading over to the house.

Her nerves were building up as she walked, feeling more and more out of place the closer she got. _Why was she going to this party?_ If she escaped back to Blue Springs now, she’d be able to fund a good few lifetimes there, make a couple of people happy. _What was drawing her to this party?_ Was her mind thinking of some sort of clever plan to get more time at a big fancy party? Was something else drawing her here? Or someone? _Not Alex_. It could be. _Definitely not Alex_. Maggie could feel eyes watching her, and she could hear the murmuring under breath, muffled insults. She tried to ignore the burning lasers she could feel in her back.

“Ah, Miss Sawyer!” Jeremiah’s booming voice didn’t let Maggie time to even admire the interior of the massive house. “It’s good to see you.”

Amongst the party-goers, Jeremiah stood with four women by his side, one of them being Alex who was wearing an emerald blue dress that reached just above her knees. What worried Maggie was that each of the women, and Jeremiah, were wearing masquerade masks. She glanced around quickly. So was everybody else. _Great_. Maggie had been worrying so much about what people were saying about her that she hadn’t even noticed the masks they were wearing.

Jeremiah’s smug grin underneath his mask, which was decorated like a three-pointed hat with feathers, suggested he had planned on not telling her it was a masquerade party. “Let me introduce you to my mother-in-law, Caitlin, my wife, Eliza, and my two daughters, Kara and Alex.”

Each woman was the exact same age, all twenty-five like Maggie, and each seemed to match one another. Caitlin, who had long red hair that was intricately braided down her back, looked a great deal like Alex. They had the same eyes, and the same high cheekbones. Eliza, who was blonde, was similar to Kara, who Maggie recognised as the blonde was the previous day. They were both tall, taller than Alex, and had the same baby blue eyes that seemed to look right through their masks and straight into Maggie.

Jeremiah noticed how Maggie’s eyes stayed focused on Alex as the women nodded their silent greetings to one another. “I believe you two have already met.”

Maggie tilted her head slightly. “Nice to meet you all.” She murmured, earning a small, seemingly amused smile from Alex.

“I’ll find you later for our game?” Jeremiah suggested, shaking Maggie out of Alex’s gaze.

She fixed him with a cool, calm look. “I look forward to it.” She said, suddenly noticing the buffet table over Jeremiah’s shoulder. Once again, she nodded to the women. “Ladies.”

Maggie didn’t realise how hungry she was until she reached the table. She tried to hide the growl of her stomach as she scoured over the options. A lot of them Maggie didn’t know what they were. There was a black powder in a small cup, and looked a bit like sugar. She took a small spoon and scooped about a mouthful up to her nose and sniffed it curiously.

“Enjoying yourself, Miss Sawyer?” A voice from behind spoke loudly.

Maggie turned slowly, attempting to mask her startled state. The voice belonged to that of Alex Danvers, who stood a few feet from her with her bodyguard a couple of metres behind. On closer inspection, Alex’s mask was the same blue as her dress and had an intricately patterned lining around it. A single, white feather stuck up on her left eye and floated at the tip. Maggie let out a small chuckle, but kept up the formal façade.

“Please, call me Maggie.” She returned, trying to ignore that constant smirk Alex seemed to reserve for her eyes only. It was weird. A smug grin that didn’t remind Maggie where she was actually from, one that made her feel funny and warm inside.

Alex observed her up and down for a moment, then turned her chin to her shoulder. “It’s alright, J’onn.” She ordered.

The guy that towered behind Alex and seemed to follow her as closely as a shadow glanced at the redhead for a few seconds, and then backed away into the crowds. Maggie raised an eyebrow.

“Do you always have a hired hand standing right next to you?” She challenged.

Alex returned the eyebrow raise, another smirk forming. “No.” She replied, unfazed by Maggie’s challenge. “I usually have two.”

Maggie clicked her tongue, and moved around the table. “Hm, that doesn’t make it very easy to get to know you. Thanks for the reminder, by the way.” She said, gesturing to Alex’s mask.

Alex pulled her mask down and put it on the table. Beneath it, her eyes were painted in a shadowy red to highlight her long eyelashes and made her eyes sparkle. Not that Maggie noticed, _at all_.

“That’s kind of the idea.” She said referring to J’onn heading away from them.

“Yours?”

Maggie shrugged. “I understand.” She looked around the vast house. “You have a lot to lose.”

Alex glanced down at Maggie’s covered arm. “So do you.” She mentioned, moving closer to Maggie. Almost close enough for their fingers to touch. “What do you do, exactly, Maggie?”

Maggie took another lingering gaze, watching the wrists and outfits of the rich attendees around them. She wondered how old they all were, what kind of things they’d done to be so old, and whether they deserved it. Her attention was brought back to Alex as the redhead stepped closer.

“I haven’t really figured it out yet, you know.”

“Yeah, why bother? There’s not exactly much hurry.”

Maggie spotted the tone that Alex spoke in. It almost sarcasm, but so calm and collected that she couldn’t tell whether she was being serious or not. Alex didn’t look at Maggie as she talked, her attention seemed to be mildly fascinated by the black powder in the cup.

“Right.” She said slowly. “After all, why do today what you can do in a century?”

Maggie never thought she’d be remembering so many billboard slogans in Blue Springs, but it felt like she knew each and every one. Each stupid, rich boy slogan that some stupid, rich boy had made up for stupid, rich boys. It was weird how the longer Maggie spent in National City, the more she remembered what Blue Springs had said about it.

“I know one thing we can do.” Alex shook Maggie back into reality again. This time, one hand grabbed her mask and the other took Maggie’s hand in hers. A wicked look flashed across her face, her eyes glinting as if someone had just dared her to do something exhilarating. “Come on.”

Maggie stood as firm as a rock as Alex tried to drag her up a set of stairs but then an extra, unusually strong yank pulled the tiny woman along behind her. Maggie felt Jeremiah’s eyes on her as they ran up the stairs. She was dragged into a bedroom with a soft white door and a small, blue ‘A’ painted onto the door.

Inside was a large bed with a light green duvet, two bedside tables and a closet that made Maggie look like an ant in comparison. Photos of Alex and her sister, Kara, were spotted around in small silver frames and a couple of her mother and grandmother but none of her father. A television sat on a dresser opposite her bed, much bigger and grander than the ones Maggie had seen in shop windows. As she ogled around the room, Alex delved into her closet and turned around. In her hand was another masquerade mask.

Like Alex’s photo frames, it was silver and was decorated with glitter in intricate lined patterns. Little gold stripes were at the tips, near the eyes, and an extravagant flair of feathers popped out from the left ear. Dark red, like Alex’s hair, and black with smaller white ones, glitter dumped all over them. Maggie let out a small chuckle as Alex handed it over to her and pulled her into a chair.

“For me?”

Alex nodded, a bright smile lighting up her face differently to how it had ten minutes previously. The moment they’d escaped the party, it was like someone had flicked a switch in her, Maggie thought. She’d gone from uptight and reserved to suddenly this soft, cheerful young woman that couldn’t say a bad word if she’d tried.

Maggie pulled on the mask, freezing when Alex’s fingers brushed over hers to adjust it. “It’s fine, I’ve got it.” She muttered, but Alex ignored her, chuckling quietly to herself.

“So, tell me, do you really come from time?” Alex asked, maintaining her seemingly content nature as she fixed Maggie’s mask.

“Why would you doubt that?”

Alex’s fingers froze, and she pulled her hands away slowly. Her eyes scanned Maggie up and down, as if she was looking for her lies. “ _I saw you run_.” She whispered, standing up and folding her arms across her chest softly. “You remind me of people who come from the ghetto.”

Maggie was glad that the mask was covering her eyes slightly, so Alex couldn’t see the alarmed expression on her face. She’d seen through her lies, probably the moment she’d laid eyes on her.

Alex leaned against her bed. “Sometimes I envy them.”

“You don’t know anything.”

“Oh, no? The clock is good for no one. _The poor die and the rich don’t live_. We can all live forever as long as we don’t do anything stupid.” Alex cocked her head to one side. “Doesn’t that scare you? That maybe you’ll never do anything dumb, or stupid? Or courageous or worth anything?”

Maggie stared at her, speechless. Perhaps she was wrong about Alex, or perhaps she was right. She knew Alex was different from the rest, but it was a matter of whether or not she was better or worse. From that outburst, Maggie decided that she was leaning towards better. Something she’d hoped for.

Maggie stood, pulled off the mask and dropped it onto Alex’s bed. She took Alex’s shoulder in her hand, looking down at her. The redhead looked back at her like she was a kicked puppy, lost in a street. For someone so full of life, Maggie thought her to be a rather sad creature.

“Come with me.”

+

“This was tonight. We got a tip off.”

Rick strode towards his two minions with purpose, glad that one of them finally had some new information on the ever-slippery Maggie Sawyer. Jud and Rudy were stood by a screen, pointing to it with grim expressions. Rick pushed between them.

It showed CCTV footage of a silver Jaguar pulling into the driveway of one of Mt. National homes. Rick recognised the shock of brown hair in the driver seat.

“She’s only an hour ahead of us.” He growled under his breath, turning on his heel and signalling for the other two to follow. “We can get her from here. Whereabouts is it?”

“Jeremiah Danvers.”

+

Slipping out of the Danvers mansion almost completely unspotted, Maggie pulled Alex along behind her although the redhead had no problem keeping up. In the crook of a mountain was a small patch of completely flat earth filled with water that led to a massive waterfall off the side. Coincidentally, that flat area of water seemed to act as a swimming pool for the back of the Danvers household.

Maggie was captured by its cool whoosh as the water slapped up against the sand and rock. “Look at that.” She breathed in awe, a large smile bringing out the dimples in the sides of her face. “I’ve _never_ seen anything like it.”

She didn’t know what made her do it, maybe it was the party, maybe it was Alex smiling at her or maybe it was that black powder – but whatever it was – made Maggie pull off her jacket, remove her shirt and pull her trousers to the ground and kick her shoes behind her.

“What are you doing?” Alex yelled in confusion as Maggie started a sprint towards the water. “We don’t go in it. You’re insane!”

Maggie laughed, pausing for that brief moment of sand between her toes for the first time. “You have this in your backyard, you never go in? And _I’m_ insane?” She gave another grin, then sprinted away and crashing into the water.

It was freezing, and salt got in her eyes and burned her mouth when it touched her tongue – but she loved it. Every burning sensation, the goose bumps that broke out on her arms as the water splashed up against her skin, the feeling of her slowed movements as she kicked to stay afloat. Maggie could do this for the rest of her life.

Alex was still standing by Maggie’s discarded suit, her arms hugging her body to stop herself shivering. Maggie swam back into standing up just above her waist: her bra was soaked so she just threw it off and let the water come up to her shoulders.

“C’mon, Alex!” She cried, still unable to stop laughing because of the water. “What happened to doing something foolish?”

That seemed to be the incentive Alex needed. She looked around her, checking whether she was being watched or not. For a split second, Maggie wondered if Alex had been watched all her life. That thought was quickly disregarded when a totally naked Alex was suddenly splashing into the water beside her, laughing almost as loudly as she was.

The Alex in the bedroom had returned, a big, silly and smiley mess. Her watch glowed beneath the dark water, shining up like a green beacon. The two swam to the other side, and back, and back again till Alex almost looked too tired to go on. Luckily, Maggie seemed to notice this and suddenly held Alex against her, pushing her up so she stayed above water.

The redhead gasped as Maggie’s cold hands wrapped around her waist and held her tightly to her chest. She could feel Maggie’s somehow warm breast against the top of her stomach, pushing her upwards against the water. She had to wrap her arms around Maggie’s shoulders to keep herself balanced. Maggie’s arms were strong, like _really_ strong, as if she benched weights heavier than her and Alex combined all day, every day. They were so close to each other now, mere inches. Alex almost thought about closing the gap. She liked Maggie _, a lot_.  Something about this girl, so different to anyone she’d ever met, just had Alex by her little finger. But something drew her back.

“I don’t know you.” She mumbled, watching how Maggie’s lips closed and parted every so often. Alex gently pushed her back, swimming just a couple of inches backwards. It was still close enough to close the gap, but far enough that Maggie wouldn’t be able to reach her properly.

Maggie kicked against the water, gazing at Alex. She was so _beautiful,_ lit up by only the glow of her watch _._ Maggie couldn’t explain it, but the girl was driving her wild. “We could change that.”

When Alex looked doubtful, frightened even, Maggie understood and backed up a little. “I get it. You’re out here, all alone, with a stranger. You can’t be too careful.”

Again, Maggie seemed to know the buttons she had to press to get Alex going again, to revive her out of her reverie. How to get under her skin. Maybe it was why Alex liked her so much. The redhead smirked, getting closer again. “Hm. Perhaps you can.”

The gap was nearly closed when a loud voice bellowed from the house. “Miss Danvers?”

Alex turned to Maggie with a startled expression, recognising J’onn’s voice immediately. “I should go back.”

“To what?” There a break of silence, and then Maggie spoke again. She nodded. “You should go back.

_“Miss Danvers?”_

Alex took one, long, lingering look at Maggie again. Her fingers traced her shoulders, down her arms and stopping at her wrists. One last look at the other girl’s lips, and then reluctantly swam away.

Maggie was left alone in the water.

+

Ten minutes later, Maggie reappeared at the party with her damp hair pulled back into a sleek bun to try and hide the wet. The party was just how she’d left it, still in full chatter of men and women and champagne was still being refilled to empty glasses. The past half-hour hadn’t changed anyone’s life at all.

Except maybe one.

Jeremiah Danvers was stalking through the crowds with a curious look on his face, as if he were looking for somebody. When he crossed Maggie straightening her jacket, he stopped. He didn’t seem to notice her damp hair, or her slightly wet clothing.

“Have you seen my daughter?” He almost growled, Maggie could hear the slight threat of _‘I know where you’ve been’_ in his tone.

“I have. She’s with her guard.” Maggie returned honestly. Jeremiah looked expectant, so Maggie raised her chin. “Behind you.”

Alex was walking towards them as Jeremiah turned, this time accompanied by two guards. She had her pocket mirror in her hand, a nervous expression written on her face. She’d managed to dry most of her hair, but even from the distance Maggie was stood at, she could still see damp areas.

“Ah. Good.” Jeremiah relaxed to see his daughter, and didn’t seem to notice her wet hair. He turned back to Maggie. “So, how about that game?”

Maggie opened her mouth to respond when suddenly a loud _bang_ echoed from the main foyer. Instantly curious; Jeremiah, Maggie, Alex and her bodyguards were attracted to the noise and hurried to the sound of exclaiming guests.

A team of about eight men and four women dressed in shiny leather coats, black combat boots and black shirts all strode into the mansion with blank, serious expressions on their face. One, their leader, had platinum blonde hair with a large, pale scar that reached down half his face. Maggie felt like she recognised him, but she didn’t know where from. Jeremiah spread his arms out to his guests.

“It’s alright, everybody. What’s this about?”

Rick stepped forward. “I’m sorry to have to break up this party, sir. I need a word with your friend.” Maggie stiffened as Rick glared her. She could practically feel his loathing soaking into her.

Jeremiah raised an eyebrow. He almost knew. “My friend? Go ahead.”

When Maggie didn’t make a move, Rick nodded to his minions. Whilst most blocked off exits, Rudy and Jud moved forwards and took either side of her by the arms. Maggie didn’t say anything, and moved somewhat reluctantly as they took her to an office that Jeremiah indicated to Rick. As she passed him, he sneered at her.

Upstairs, Jud and Rudy practically threw Maggie into a chair and slammed her arm down onto the desk. They pulled her jacket back, exposing the clock on her arm. Rick dragged a chair across the study, sitting as far away from Maggie as he could. She disgusted him.

He cleared his throat. “I’m Timekeeper Rick Malverne.”

“I’m Maggie Sawyer.” She replied casually. She wasn’t afraid of Rick: she’d met plenty of guys scarier than him. The only thing that worried her about this situation was weirdly what Alex thought of her. What did her face look like as Maggie was taken away?

“I know.” He twiddled his thumbs on his stomach as he leaned back, bored. “What are you doing in this zone?”

Maggie cocked an eyebrow. She’d also been interrogated several times. “It’s not illegal, is it? To change to a different time zones?”

“No, it isn’t. Rare, though. Where’d you get it?”

“Won it. Gambling.”

Rick sniffed, narrowing his pale eyes. Maggie knew he knew – and she knew he didn’t understand. “All of it?”

There wasn’t any point in lying to him. “No. A man named James Olsen gave me over a century. He said he didn’t need it anymore.” She swallowed. “He timed himself out.”

“James Olsen was worth thousands of years.” Rick replied. “He could practically live forever. You expect me to believe that he was immortal and he wanted to die?”

Maggie resisted a scoff. “I don’t expect you to believe what I’m telling you, but it’s the truth. He gave it to me.” She leaned forward just a little. “I’m not a thief. If you guys are looking for stolen time, you should arrest everybody here.”

“I see. You’re talking about justice.” Rick said. He rose from his chair, still calm and collected. “Well, I’m a Timekeeper. Don’t really concern myself with ‘justice’. I am only interested in what I can measure. Seconds, minutes, hours. I keep time. And that time is in the wrong hands.”

He nodded to Rudy, who moved and stretched Maggie’s arm out again roughly. They pressed a reader to her clock, and Maggie ignored the whirring of her clock decreasing rapidly.

“That time will be held, along with you. We’ll leave you two hours for booking and processing.” Rudy told her.

The moment they were done, the three of them headed towards the exit. But Maggie wasn’t finished. “Why are you investigating James’ suicide?” Rick paused. _“There’s mass murder in Blue Springs every day.”_

Rick scoffed, shaking his head. The three returned to their positions, Jud and Rudy by Maggie’s side and Rick leaning over the desk.

 “That is fascinating. Huh, I heard a guy talk like that once. Ooh, twenty years ago now? Hm, you’re probably too young to remember your father, eh?”

Maggie’s cool demeanour vanished. “We’re not vacuums you can just throw into a closet.” She snarled.

 “We’ll arrange safe transport for you.”

He walked out of the study, passing Jeremiah who was stood in the hallway outside. Maggie immediately spotted Alex stood beside him, fixing her with a look that she couldn’t tell whether it was anger or just knowing. She shook her head and went to walk away, but her father caught her by the wrist.

“Alex, do as I ask and stay with your sister and your guards.” He told her in a tone that left no room for argument.

Alex ripped her hand away from him, glaring at him. “Oh, for God’s sake, Dad. There’s an army in this house. If we can’t stop one girl from killing us, we should _fucking_ kill ourselves.” She snapped, and stalked away. Maggie never felt prouder.

She took that as her distraction. She elbowed Jud in the groin, sending him to the floor as she stood. Rudy almost laughed at the tiny woman’s attempt. He sent out a right hook that crunched against Maggie’s jaw. He followed it with a left cross, but Maggie managed to raise her arm in defence. The block turned to a strike, as sudden and savage as a snake. Rudy coughed and fell back, with Maggie finishing her attack by stomping the inside of his leg.

She dove past Rick and Jeremiah and bolted down the stairs opposite to the ones that Alex was stepping down. She kicked two rushing Timekeepers in the face, sending them sprawling into frightened guests. Seeing four bunching at the bottom, Maggie opted by jumping the railing and landing on a glass table, light enough so it didn’t break beneath her weight.

Alex reached the bottom of the stairs, almost completely oblivious to Maggie’s violent exit, and gasped to see Maggie knock out a woman cold with one solid punch and take the gun from her belt. In that moment, Maggie’s unknown plan all clicked into place. Everything went into slow motion, everyone around her blurred: her, the gun, and Alex. _Everything clicked_. It was just her and Alex.

Maggie moved, savagely and suddenly, and leapt at Alex, grabbing her from behind roughly. Her arm wrapped around her neck and yanked her downwards to her height. Maggie didn’t know why she did it, but the thought of Alex just straightening would throw her right over the redhead’s head concerned her, and so _she did it_.

 _“Alex!”_ Cries from Alex’s mother, father and sister came from all around the room.

Kara and Eliza were being held back by their guards, and J’onn was advancing towards Maggie slowly, a fatal look in his eyes. She knew if he reached them, he’d break her neck like a twig. So, she did it. _God why did she do it?_ Alex was wriggling and squirming underneath her grip. _She’s frightened, Maggie._ But she couldn’t let her go, not for anything and not for anyone. _Hell, she shouldn’t have done it._ But she did it.

Maggie stuck the gun to Alex’s temple.

 

**“Nobody move, _or I blow her goddamn head off_.”**


	6. Dodge Challengers

Alex had stilled under Maggie’s arm, freezing up at the feel of the metal pressed up against her temple. She was frozen in fear. Maggie didn’t stop to make threats, instead dragging Alex backwards towards the mansion’s kitchens and ignoring the cries to make her stop.

They pushed through kitchen staff, knocking over bowls and saucepans amongst confused exclamations and yelps of pain. Alex gasped for breath, Maggie’s arm holding her so tightly across the throat that she was finding it difficult to breath. The tiny woman was pointing her gun at whoever she needed to move out of her way, and if they didn’t, they were going to be barged into at some force. With nobody seemingly pursuing them, Maggie and Alex stumbled out of the mansion through the kitchen door and into the night air. It was colder now, with the wind picking up. There was a ringing in Maggie’s ears, and had it not been there, she would’ve heard the trees swaying around them.  

The valet was still stood by Maggie’s jag and turned when he heard them approaching. He didn’t get a chance to even open his mouth before Maggie sucker punched him, sending him sprawling to the floor. He didn’t get up.

“Sorry.” Maggie murmured as they passed him.

She bundled Alex into the passenger seat roughly and slamming her foot to the accelerator before the redhead could even try and open the door again. The jaguar’s wheels screamed at Maggie as they skidded against the ground, rocketing forward at such a speed that Alex’s head nearly hit the dashboard. Maggie gripped the wheel a little tighter.

“Put your seatbelt on, it’s going to get messy.” She growled, roaring through the courtyard towards the main driveway.

Alex didn’t reply as the jag squealed past the 1970 Dodge Challengers that the Timekeepers drove, only keeping her head low as the keepers themselves ran from the building. Maggie noticed them too, and floored the accelerator again. The car screeched out of the Danvers home and back onto the main road, narrowly missing another Challenger coming towards them.

Alex looked over her shoulder fearfully as Maggie drove like a maniac. They’d managed to make it to the bottom of the mountain and back into the busy roads of the main city where it was lit by tall, luminescent street lamps. Through the loud humming of the Challenger alarms, she could see the one closest behind them was being driven by Rick, his pale eyes illuminated by the lights. He was only a few metres away, keeping up to Maggie as she swerved in and out of traffic.

“You’re going to kill us! Please just let me out!” She cried, holding on the side of the car tightly as Maggie made another swerve.

When there was no reply, Alex shut her eyes. The bumper of Rick’s car rammed into the back of the jag, sending it spinning as Maggie and Alex’s heads smacked into the dashboard on impact. The little silver car came to a stop, facing Rick’s car. Maggie, although a tad stunned, grabbed the gearstick and roughly shoved it into reverse.

“What are you doing?” Alex yelled. “You can’t drive this thing _backwards_! Do you even know how to drive?”

Maggie steered through more cars, trying to focus. “What’s there to know?” She shouted through the noise.

Rick was pursuing them with ease, trying to keep his temper down as the woman kept evading him and the traffic around her. She was too _fucking_ slippery for her own good. Alex gasped as they narrowly avoided a Cadillac. Her heart felt like it was about to leap out of her chest, and Maggie was terrifying her. She had a serious, yet crazed look in her eye and a scowl written across her features.

“Oh shit!” Maggie yelled, a loud horn nearly drowning her out.

Behind them, a huge lorry loomed dangerously close. There was no way to go around it without flying off the road and into the water below. Maggie slammed on the brakes, steering further and further around. The car stopped at the back, the front end swinging around and the car righted itself – narrowly missing the lorry as it did. Maggie pressed on the accelerator again.

Rick was not so fortunate. His attention had been so focused on loathing Maggie’s face that he hadn’t even started steering to miss the lorry. Noticing it too late, he practically turned the wheel upside down to dodge it, but the lorry clipped the back wheels and sent it spinning into the concrete barrier and a smoky stop. Rick watched the jaguar disappear into a tunnel.

 _Shit_.

The crash of the lorry stopped the rest of the oncoming traffic, leaving an empty road for the jag to drive along. Maggie exhaled deeply, nearly pushing a laugh through it. Her heart was racing, and adrenaline was coursing through her veins. She’d never felt so _alive_. The wind blew through her hair, sending it backwards in a beautiful flowing motion. Despite the pursuing Timekeepers, she felt free.

Maggie glanced to her left. Alex was cradled in the passenger seat, a terrified expression on her face as her hands gripped the car door so tightly that her knuckles were whiter than the streetlights. Maggie felt guilty that she’d dragged the other woman into this, noting her fear. It was safe to say she’d never been kidnapped before. But, then again, a very small thought niggled its way to the front of Maggie’s mind. She was _glad_ to be with her.

An exit road led the jag down to a dark, open alley beneath the motorway. Maggie parked beneath it, listening for the screams of the Timekeepers’ cars above. She checked her arm. Fifty minutes were gone from the two hours that Jud and Rudy had left her. They wouldn’t survive the night, let alone escape back to Midvale or Blue Springs.  

“Give me some time.” She said to Alex, ordering rather than asking.

Alex tucked her arm into her sides tightly. “I guess you really are from the ghetto, after all.” She hissed furiously, fixing Maggie with a death glare that could make grown men cry.

Maggie’s eyes narrowed bitterly. “What the hell do you know about where I’m from? Give me some time.” She growled.

“Why should I? Are you going to kill me like you did James Olsen?”

Her words stung, and it hurt to see Alex thought of her like that, reducing her to a murderer. But Maggie was like a duck, and it washed off of her as if it was nothing. “Lend me an _hour_.”

Alex glowered at her, hating every inch of the woman sat opposite her. “I’m not giving you a second.” She snarled. “I should’ve listened to my dad.”

Maggie huffed unhappily, and pulled her jacket sleeve back down. She glanced around her, trying to think of a plan. Alex sighed beside her.

“Please, just take me home. Please.” She managed in an exasperated voice, tired from all the action.

Maggie shook her head. “I can’t do that.”

“Why?”

“You’re keeping me alive.” Maggie told her. She gestured to Alex’s clock, getting a glimpse of the decade she had on there. “Keep that covered. Anybody sees it and you’ll be dead.”

++

Half an hour later, and the jag was breezing down the old motorways towards Blue Springs. Morning was beginning to break over the horizon, the sun painting the sky in pastel orange and blue. Alex had relaxed in the passenger seat enough to doze off beside Maggie, finally buckling her seatbelt across herself. Maggie, although exhausted, drove on. Her eyes kept drooping, her head nearly hitting the wheel as the car would slowly ghost across the lanes.

There was a loud bang which woke both of them for a brief second. Maggie’s steering swerved wildly as every wheel went down, blown out by the tracks laid out across the road. Maggie had just enough time to grab the back of Alex’s neck and shove it downwards as the car suddenly bucked and the world turned upside down. The only sound was a terrifying crash and the shriek of metal on metal as the car flipped down the sandy bank.

Alex and Maggie lurched against their seatbelts, their head slamming against the windows. The road outside tilted wildly and Maggie realised the Jaguar was flipping. Alex heard Maggie curse beside her and for an instant, she was weightless, and then the jag hit the ground again and jarred her against the dashboard. Everything went black.

“Now that worked _too_ well.”

Figures emerged from the shadows of the street the jag was now rocking its broken tyres on, and stalked towards the smashed car curiously. Their leader smirked as she saw the two victims laying inside it.

“You guys wasted a gorgeous car.” Livewire chuckled, admiring what was left of the silver car.

It was broken all over: the windscreen smashed, the red leather seats in rips and feathers and the outer body covered in scratches and heavy dents.

“Look who it is.” One of the others gestured to Maggie’s unconscious body with her gun.

“Who it was.” Livewire corrected with a smug grin. She lifted Maggie’s clock. “She’ll be done in minutes.”

“She’ll wake up dead.” The minion laughed. “That’ll be a shock.”

Another frowned. “How do you _wake up dead_?”

Livewire rolled her eyes as the two bickered. She was _surrounded_ by idiots. She dropped Maggie’s arm, letting it dangle alongside the car. “Too bad. I would’ve preferred to kill her more beautifully.”

“This one is still breathing.” The second minute man told her, referring to Alex. “She’s got a decade.”

Livewire walked around to the front of the car. It was better than nothing, but she still wasn’t happy. “The man she stole from me had more than a century.” She mentioned bitterly, taking Alex’s floppy arm in her hand and began taking the years from her arm.

An alarm in the form of a car screeched past on the road above their heads, and the gang immediately started to scatter as they recognised the familiar tune of the Timekeepers. Livewire stayed with Alex, still reaping her decade from her clock.

“Livewire, c’mon leave it!” The other gang members shouted, running back to the shadows that they’d come from.

Hearing the sirens beginning to get closer, then doubling and tripling, Livewire finally let go and ran after them and disappearing into the dark. The alarms roused Alex from her black slumber, and immediately she looked at her watch. Half an hour was left. Maggie roused beside her, both women rubbing their injured heads groggily.

Everything hurt. It felt like Maggie’s world was spinning faster than the car had done. Peering through blurry vision, she noticed the blood all over Alex’s face. It made her feel even guiltier, that now not only had she threatened Alex at gunpoint, ripped her away from her family, endangered her life in moving traffic but now she’d put her in a car crash. Maggie wondered whether she should’ve brought Alex with her or not. She took the redhead’s chin in her hand.

“Look at me.” She murmured, feeling the girl stiffen at her touch. “Are you alright?”

“No.”

Maggie let her go, chuckling under her breath. Alex frowned at her, trying to get out of the car. The door had been dented again her leg, and therefore would not open.

“What?”

“We’re not dead.” Maggie observed.

“Yeah, we’re not alive for long either.” Alex panicked, jumping the door and landing with a stumble on the ground. She had scratches and cuts and bruises all over her body, making her skin look bluer than her now ripped dress. “Where did my time go? I have half an hour!”

Maggie’s door thankfully busted open after a well-placed kick and she hopped out gracefully. “You’re lucky. Minute men.” She said, pointing to Alex’s arm.

“Does everyone in the ghetto steal?” Alex replied, her voice becoming shriller with panic. They were miles away from anywhere that looked familiar to her, and she only had a half hour.

“That’s rich coming from you.” Maggie retorted. She had to hand it to the redhead: she made it easy for the guilt in Maggie’s heart to ebb away. “Let me guess, now you like the idea of sharing.”

Alex’s panic was rising, and the guilt was flooding back into Maggie. She didn’t know what was wrong with her: Maggie hated rich people. They deserved every shit that got thrown at them. _Apart from Alex_ , her brain reminded her, _Alex doesn’t deserve this_.

Maggie’s face softened, and she held her arm out. “Come here.”

Alex hesitated for a moment, then let Maggie hold it. Their arms connected, their clocks whirring for a few seconds. Maggie gave her five minutes, leaving only fifteen on hers.

“Don’t worry-“ She joked. “It’s not the first time I’ve been this broke.”

Alex pulled her arm back, stepping away from Maggie. “Well, it’s a first for me. What are we going to do?”

Maggie looked around. She recognised where they were, just outside Blue Springs. She squinted: it was a reachable distance and the alarms were getting dangerously loud now. “Whatever we have to. Come on, we need to go.”

She offered her hand out to Alex, glancing down at the heels she wore. They were too high for her to run in by herself. Alex followed her gaze, and then nodded, and took Maggie’s hand. For some reason, it made her feel a little better to run alongside Maggie hand in hand, comforting somehow. The two disappeared down an alleyway.

Not even a minute after the two slipped away, the Timekeepers finally arrived at the scene of the broken jag. Rick, who was sat in a new Challenger, held his arm over the scanner behind the gearbox. “Dispatch, wire me my per diem.”

 _“Time transfer.”_ It replied automatically, sending five hours to Rick’s wrist.

He gathered himself together, and then stepped out of the car. Both Jud and Rudy, who were bandaged and plastered together from their assault, stood waiting for him patiently.

“Cutting it close again, sir.” Jud observed.

Rick shrugged, kicking his door shut behind him. “Well, I’m still walking around. Judging by the lack of dead bodies, I have to assume they are also.” He mentioned, regarding the smashed-up car.

“They got jacked.” Rudy added. “They couldn’t have left here with more than minutes.”

“He’s back in his old neighbourhood.” Jud agreed. “Where do you want us to start looking?”

Rick glared around the street, chewing the side of his mouth calmly. He’d lost Maggie again last night, but now was the time to recover from that. He wouldn’t let her get under his skin again. “We don’t. She’ll come to us.”

++

Across town, Maggie was pulling Alex along beside her like a reluctant child. The redhead was much slower than her, breathing hard as they ran. Her feet and her calves were killing her, but she knew if she took her shoes off, the glass and garbage on the roads would cut her feet even worse.

“Where are we going?” She spluttered, holding onto Maggie’s hand tightly.

They had reached a compound of apartments that surrounded a broken-down motel, with metal stairs that led up to rows of emerald green doors with the paint peeling off of them. Maggie guided Alex up a set.

“A friend’s.” She replied. They reached one of the green doors, and Maggie hammered on it with the back of her fist. “Winn? Winn, are you in there?”

The door opened a crack, and a small man with round glasses and a timid face peered around the door. “Oh, hi Maggie.” He mumbled. “What are you doing here?”

“Where’s your roommate, Brainy? Where’s Winn?”

Brainy looked away, pinching the bridge of his nose. He took his glasses away and polished them with the hem of his shirt. “He’s dead.” He whispered.

Maggie’s heart sunk, and she suddenly felt faint. “Dead? What?” She breathed in disbelief.

Brainy returned his glasses onto his nose. “You gave him a _decade_. Drank himself to death with nine years on his clock.” He said, suppressing a sob.

Maggie sighed, feeling more guilty than ever. “Jesus Christ.” She finally said. “Brainy, I’m so sorry.”

He only pulled the door back again. “Goodbye, Maggie.” He said, and shut the door in her face.

There was a couple of seconds of silence, Maggie breathing hard against the door as she pressed her forehead to it, before Alex spoke.

“Maggie, we only have minutes.” She reminded her in a shaky voice.

“Try not to act like it.” Maggie replied, noticing her voice was as shaky as Alex’s. Winn’s death was hitting her hard, harder than she ever thought it would be.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Shut up!”

“We’re going to die, Maggie! Do you want to die?” Alex shouted, tears welling in her eyes.

 _“Shut up!”_ Maggie turned with such swift movement that Alex back into the window of the apartment, shutting up when the tiny woman glared up at her.

As the two stood, mere inches away from each other, Maggie noticed something beneath Alex’s hair that was glinting in the sunlight. Her hand cupped Alex’s face, her thumb pushing back the red hair. A small stone, the colour of pink, white and orange, sparkled beneath it.

“I hope those are real.” Maggie grabbed Alex’s hand tightly. _“Run.”_

The two sprinted down the stairs and belted hell-for-leather down a road with a chainlink fence on either side. At the end of the road was a small building with a big, faded yellow sign with the word **‘PAWN’** in big black font emblazoned across it. From their distance, Maggie could see the grate shuffling down to a close and so she let go of Alex’s hand and sprinting ahead.

“Stop! Wait!” She shouted, slamming against the closing door. She stuck her shoe underneath it as it nearly came to a close.

 _“Come back in an hour.”_ A voice echoed from underneath it.

Maggie looked at her watch as Alex caught up behind her, removing the earrings as she did. _Thirty seconds._

“We haven’t got an hour!” Maggie snarled forcefully.

Alex pushed the earrings beneath the gap in the door. “Here!”

There was second pause, and then the door rose. Behind another metal grate stood a man with a monocle, inspecting the earrings curiously and a woman holding a pistol at Maggie and Alex. The man lowered his monocle, pocketing the earrings. “I’ll give you two days for them.”

“They’re diamonds!” Alex protested.

“You can take the forty-eight hours, or you can be a pretty corpse.” The man retorted.

Maggie rolled her eyes. Two days was a fucking dream. She had _ten_ seconds. “We’ll take it.” She hurried, shoving her arm through the gap. Roughly, the pair transferred the two days and Maggie gave Alex half of it.

The shutter rolled down, and left the two in the street. Maggie quickly pulled Alex into another alleyway, conscious that there were security cameras in this area. They’d probably already been spotted but it was better to be safe than sorry.

“Right, now you’ve got to listen to me.” She said firmly.

In the dark of the alley, Alex raised an eyebrow. “I don’t owe you anything.” She spat. There was a click and she froze.

Maggie pressed the metal of the gun into Alex’s side, reminding her why she was here and that she hadn’t saved Alex because it was Alex. She decided then, she didn’t want anything to do with the redhead- she was too confusing. Maggie knew what to do with her, knew why she’d really taken her now.

She was going to hold her to ransom.


	7. You Must Hate ME

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Sorry I've been away for so long, but I hope you enjoy this chapter!

“I guess I got my wish. I did do something foolish.”

Alex grumbled as Maggie walked behind her, one hand gripped tightly around her arm and the other holding the gun against her waist as a reminder to their situation. Daylight had broken over Blue Springs now, and its occupants were beginning to shuffle from their shadows as the bells for work began to ring out. Maggie, still dressed in her battered tux, was deeply aware of the stalking eyes that watched them as she nudged Alex ahead of her. She was trying her best to ignore them, and Alex’s disgusted comments about her – although she was making it difficult.

She tried to focus on something else. As they rounded a corner, Maggie glanced up and noticed the bank’s sign was looking greyer than ever. Had it always looked like that? That _shabby_? All the signs in National City were so gleamy and bright, Maggie wasn’t sure. She gestured to it with the gun.

“Your name is on a lot of buildings.” She observed, referring to the faded red ‘Danvers Timelenders’ that was peeling off the grey background.

“It’s my father’s name.” Alex replied. She wasn’t enjoying Maggie’s crude and cold demeanour towards her, but there was no point in trying to escape. Although the other woman was shorter than she was, she was a hell of a lot stronger and faster. Besides, this was Maggie’s turf. Alex probably wouldn’t even make it ten metres.

“How much is he worth, anyway?”

_“Eons.”_

Maggie silently ordered Alex onto the sidewalk with a nudge of the gun just beneath her ribs, her eyes remaining on the sign the whole time. “What do you think he’d pay to get you back?” She challenged.

Alex scoffed. “You have no shame, do you?”

“Chill out, princess.” Maggie replied, stopping them both beside a series of phone booths. She lowered the gun down to her side, and pulled out one of the phones, tucking it into her shoulder. “Be grateful I’m even giving you back.”

“I didn’t want to go in the first place.”

Maggie smirked as she deposited a minute into the booth. _“Right.”_ She said with a sneer and then pointed at the buttons. “Dial.”

Alex lolled her eyes at Maggie, but a quick reminder of the killing machine in the brunette’s hand reminded her that she was to do as she was told. She dialled the number, and sighed as Maggie roughly pushed her up against the wall so she couldn’t get away.

The dial tone didn’t take long, and Jeremiah’s voice soon drawled into Maggie’s ear: a cold, creepy sneer that made her stomach twist.

_“Hello?”_

“Mr Danvers,” Maggie began calmly, although she tried to smother the fright in her voice. “Please give the phone to the Timekeeper.”

Alex raised an eyebrow as Maggie waited for a moment, evidently surprised or perhaps impressed that she knew Rick might be there. There was a quiet shuffle on the phone before the next voice spoke.

 _“Hello, Maggie.”_ Rick’s voice greeted; his voice almost bored by the fact he was having to speak to Maggie. _“How much do you want?”_

“A thousand years.”

He scoffed. _“You’ll never live to spend it.”_

Maggie glared up at the bank in front of her, watching as the neon sign flickered on and off for a brief second. A small smile came to her face: her plan was coming into motion again. “Fine. Then distribute it to the time lines in Blue Springs. Do it by sunrise tomorrow and she can go home.”

Rick scuffed his boots, the noise of it irritating Maggie’s ears. _“Maggie…”_ He sighed. _“I’m afraid for you, Maggie. You keep talking like him and you’re going to die like him.”_

The smile vanished again. “My father died in a fight, trying to take a man’s time.” She spat, not noticing Alex look away.

 _“Oh, no. His crime wasn’t taking time. He was doing something far more dangerous_.” Rick’s voice continued in its eerie coolness. _“Please don’t make your father’s mistake.”_

++

Back in National City, Rick hung up the phone and returned it to Jeremiah’s desk, where the billionaire sat with his wife, Eliza, by his side. Rudy and Jud stood at the doorway, both working away silently.

“Blue Springs. Pedre Plaza.” Jud reported, nodding to the screen in his hand.

Rick nodded. “I know it.” He turned to Jeremiah calmly. “A thousand years to the time lines, that’s what she’s demanding.”

Jeremiah looked at the desk in front of him, his tongue exploring his cheek as her thought. “A thousand years…” He echoed under his breath.

Eliza frowned at her husband, noticing his hesitation to give the Timekeepers orders. “It’s nothing.” She said to him, quietly, her hand on his knee. “It’s for our daughter.”

Jeremiah was silent for a moment, not responding to the urgent squeeze that Eliza gave his hand. “No, it’s for _them._ ”

++

Maggie had been pushing Alex for ten more minutes before the redhead spoke again. She’d been becoming more and more reluctant to the brunette’s touch, her steps now smaller than a toddler’s and pulling up the silver gauntlet on her wrist more and more. _Like that would help_. The streets were filling up now, more and more people were awake and heading towards the factories. Some paid Maggie a small nod of mutual understanding, others frowned at the small woman’s appearance and the presence of Alex’s.

“This is insane.” Alex muttered under her breath, her eyes darting around at the strangers stalking past them as she tried to pull the gauntlet further over her wrist. “They can take your time, just like that.”

“Or you can take theirs.” Maggie pointed out as they passed the body of a woman in the street. She was wearing a low-cut red dress that flared out at the waist, dirtied by the grime on the ground beneath her, and her long brown hair was mussed from exposure. It almost made Maggie stop as she glanced at the woman. She looked like Gabriella.

“This is insane.” Alex mumbled, staring long and hard at the body just centimetres from her feet.

Maggie glanced at the redhead, studying her reaction. She looked spooked, like she’d just seen a ghost, but also _ashamed_ , as if she’d been the one to make it happen. Tears were brimming in her deep brown eyes, and for a moment, Maggie felt bad that she’d paused. She urged the younger woman onwards. “Yeah, it’s insane.”

By the late afternoon, when Maggie decided it was safe and clear, the two headed to the apartment that Maggie and Gabriella had once shared. There wasn’t much time left on their wrists, around thirteen hours each, so they’d have to get up early the next morning for more. Maggie had dragged them through the window, she couldn’t let any neighbours see them.

The apartment, surprisingly, hadn’t been touched. Maggie’s mug was still in the sink, and photos were still stuck to the ancient refrigerator that hummed away quietly. The lights were off, keeping her home in darkness, and Maggie only hoped they still worked as she wondered her way over to the switch. Thankfully, they did, but Maggie kept them off and instead switched on a smaller, less conspicuous lamp.

“We should be safe here, until dawn.” She told Alex, helping her through the window and into the kitchen.

Alex looked around the little dingy room, keeping herself reserved to a corner. “This is your place?” She asked gently.

Maggie ran her hands underneath the sink: the tap thankfully still worked. “There’s water, it’s cold but it’s something.” She muttered, leaning against the counter and looking at the redhead. “You can put on fresh clothes.”

Alex nodded silently, and followed Maggie’s directions into a small bedroom, smaller than the broom cupboard of her home. How anyone could sleep in there was beyond her. When she heard another door click behind her, signifying Maggie disappearing into her own bedroom, she sighed. The bedroom was only lit by the dim glow of a yellow lampshade: so low that Alex almost couldn’t see her own fingers in front of her face. A wardrobe about the height and width of Alex lay with a broken door in the corner, and with a tired sigh, she stepped towards it.

+

When the eldest Danvers re-emerged from the bedroom, Maggie was stood at the window. From this distance even Alex could see what she was doing. The way her eyes studied the outside quickly, like she was waiting to swat a fly and just trying to focus on it, the way her body didn’t move a muscle, staying as still as a statue and her ears perked to any sound of noise: she was waiting to be caught.

Alex’s foot caught on one of the chairs, alerting the brunette to her presence. They studied each other up and down for a few seconds. Alex had ditched the dress and heels, exchanging them for a blue boiler suit with short sleeves and a pair of black, worn-out trainers. The gauntlet was also gone, replaced by a simple, tan, wrap that tied at her elbow and her wrist.

Maggie had also gotten changed: discarding the ruined suit for her father’s old leather jacket with a grey shirt and the black trousers from the tuxedo. It was her best clothing, and she never wore it, but it was all she had left. She pointed to the table, where two mugs of water sat.

“Something to drink, if you want it.” She murmured, doing her best not to look at the redhead as she moved to pick up one of the mugs.

Alex took the other, sipping the water gratefully. She hadn’t noticed how thirsty she was. Maggie crashed onto the couch, a layer of dust leaping into the air as she did. Alex could see the defeat, and the exhaustion, in her kidnapper’s eyes. She perched on the end of the sofa.

“Where’s your family?” She pried gently, thinking of how lonely the other woman seemed.

Maggie’s head lolled over to look at Alex, watching her. She was still trying to figure Alex out, and it was getting more difficult the longer she knew her. One moment she was the haughty bitch who turned a blind eye to the poor, and the next she was the kind, warm creature that Maggie felt she recognised.

“My aunt timed out.” She finally confessed.

Alex looked down at the boiler suit, noticing a name threaded into the breast pocket but she couldn’t read it upside down. “This is hers.” She realised.

“Yeah.”

“What about your father?” Alex continued gently. She was trying not to cross the line that she already knew she was toeing.

“He died when I was little.” Maggie replied. “He was a fighter, really strong. He wasn’t the strongest, but he knew how to win.”

Alex’s interest perked up, her curiosity seeping to the surface. “How do you win?”

“I’ll show you.”

Maggie sat up and turned to face Alex, pulling up her sleeve to show her watch and offered her wrist out to the other woman. Alex swallowed nervously and put down her drink before she gave Maggie her own wrist. She didn’t know what made her trust her kidnapper: maybe it was the sudden gleam in her eye or the exhaustion, but she let her have it.

Maggie took Alex’s wrist close to her, settling it on her lap with Alex’s hand resting on top all whilst trying to ignore the beating of her heart increasing slowly. “What you do is let them have the upper hand, and then he’d let his time go all the way down.”

Maggie’s clock starting whirring its hours onto Alex’s, making the other girl ogle at her bravery.

“Because he knew that when you were down to your last four seconds, and they think it’s over, they start watching your clock-“ As Maggie spoke, Alex’s eyes fell prey to the trick and stared at the lasting second on the dark girl’s wrist. “-and forget to watch their own.”

Maggie turned her wrist over so her hand rested on top of Alex’s and pulled her hours back onto her own wrist. The redhead’s lips twitched into a smile that faded again as their eyes met. Where Maggie’s eyes searched for that impressed glint Alex always had in her eye, she only found sympathy.

“He died in a fight?” She asked softly, pulling her hand away.

Maggie pulled her sleeve back down, and got up. “I think he was killed for giving away what he won. He wasn’t just giving them time. He was giving them _hope_.” She said seriously, finishing off her drink as she did.

She wished her father was alive, even if it was just to tell her what had happened to him. Maggie had wished her father to be brave and strong, the best fighter in all of Blue Springs – and Rick’s recurring words was hurting that and her.

“ _His crime wasn’t taking time. He was doing something far more dangerous_. _Please don’t make your father’s mistake.”_

“How long have you been this old?” Alex’s voice brought Maggie out of her thoughts and back into the room. She was standing up now, her own drink finished and on the table.

Maggie blinked. “Twenty-five for three.”

“Twenty-five for two.” Alex replied. “What was it like when your clock started?”

Maggie sighed gently at the memory, her eyes falling on the window she’d been staring out of. “I was in the street. It nearly knocked me over. My year was gone in a week because we were so in debt.” She recalled, an almost sad tone lacing her voice. “After that, I just lived day to day.”

Alex’s lower lip worried, and that tell-tale face of guilt crept up on her again. “Mine was a little different. It woke me.” She said softly, staring off into space as she remembered it. “I looked in the mirror, I guess everybody does. That’s what you’re going to look like for the rest of your life. My dad gave me a decade to celebrate. You must _hate_ me, where I come from.”

“It’s nobody’s fault, what they’re born with.” Maggie replied, walking over to the sink and returning with a dampened cloth. “Come here, you’ve still got blood on your face.”

She sat Alex down and knelt down in front of her, pulling her face down to her eye height by her chin. There were still some shards of glass that had cut into Alex’s face that Maggie wiped away gently, dabbing at the small wounds. On closer inspection, she could see how beautiful Alex really was. Her skin was smooth to the touch, almost like silk and light freckles covered her nose and eyes – _like a raccoon mask_ , almost, Maggie thought to herself.

She couldn’t believe Jeremiah hadn’t sent every military force known to man to rescue her.

Maggie would’ve. True, Alex was stuck-up and privileged and annoying and naïve – but she was also determined and kind and funny and just…. _beautiful_.

Yeah, Maggie would’ve.

++

Alex was woken the next morning to the click of a gun. She had fallen asleep on the couch whilst Maggie had evidently kept watch. When her eyes opened the Blue Springs girl was stashing the gun into her belt and stood at the window again, glaring out of it at the bank across the street.

“They open in a minute.” She said curtly, her former demeanour from the street having seemingly returned. The moment of weakness from last night had passed and now it was back to her plan. “Let’s see how generous your father is now, eh?”

Alex got up, and silently stood by Maggie’s side. They could both feel each other’s nerves, their breaths both short and shaky. Outside, a long line was formed outside the bank. The doors opened slowly and its clerk emerged. Maggie and Alex watched him exchange a few muffled words, then as he turned the line disbanded and the occupants moved back to their homes with disappointed exchanges.

Maggie narrowed her eyes, the blood in her veins beginning to boil. She tightened her jaw, and looked to Alex expectantly. She didn’t anticipate the look the redhead returned. The Danvers girl looked betrayed, heartbroken even as she tried to hold back tears. It pulled at Maggie’s heart, seeing someone so sad even if it was someone like Alex.

“The Timekeepers would’ve never let him do it.” She attempted.

Alex just shook her head. “You don’t have to say that.” She whispered. “How do you think my father built all those buildings? By giving away a thousand years?”

Maggie looked back at the window, feeling bad. Alex shook her head and spoke again.

“Now what?”

“You can go home.” Maggie pulled the gun from her belt. “There’s people on the streets, I can move without being spotted. What have you got?”

“Eleven hours.” Alex murmured. “How does anyone live like this?”

Maggie smirked. “You don’t generally sleep in.”

++

The streets were full of life, busier than Maggie had ever seen it. People were everywhere, trucks were trundling around full of workers and noise just filled the air. The pair walked like they did before, Maggie’s hand holding Alex’s upper arm and the gun pointing to her side, but Maggie kept it beneath her jacket on account of the amount of people around.

“You can call for help.” She muttered into Alex’s ear, not noticing how she made the hair on the back of her neck stand up on end as she guided her towards the phone booths. “I’ll watch from here, make sure you’re safe. Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.”

Alex stopped, nearly making Maggie collide into her. “You know, you could fight this.” She told her. “I can say that running to the ghetto was my idea. My father would believe that, he thinks I’m reckless. He has a lot of influence, Maggie.”

“I don’t understand-“

“He can get you a lawyer, make a deal with the Timekeepers. He can keep you _safe_ , unharmed!”

Maggie shook her head, although she was touched to see Alex had a caring bone in her body. “I’m pretty sure _that_ Timekeeper doesn’t make deals.” She told the younger woman.

Alex swallowed. “What are you going to do? Steal?”

Maggie grinned. “Is it stealing if it’s already stolen?” When Alex looked unconvinced, Maggie slyly handed her the gun. “Here. Just in case. I’ll be right here, don’t worry, Alex.”

She was stepping backwards as Alex turned towards the phone booth, and so nearly lost her footing when Alex turned back and suddenly closed the gap between them. On instinct, Maggie grabbed onto the lapels of the boiler suit as she stumbled backwards, and the redhead caught her by the waist as their lips crashed together. It wasn’t a long kiss, maybe only a couple of seconds, but long enough for Maggie to almost completely forget what she was here to do. Alex didn’t look her in the eye when she pulled away, only just turned and headed over to the phone booth.

Alex picked up the phone. “Dad?”

 _“Alexandra?”_ Her father’s voice sounded relieved.

“You couldn’t spare a second, Dad? I wish I could say I’m surprised.” She spat. There was no response. “Did you hear what I just said?”

As she paid her minute, Maggie sat down, dazed, on the sidewalk. She watched the other girl in confusion. _Had she meant to do that? Was that just spur of the moment? What the fuck was that?_ Alex had reduced Maggie from hardened criminal to putty in a mere second. _Or have I always felt that? She’s the only person I trust. Get a grip, Maggie!_

 _“You know I’d do anything for you.”_ Jeremiah shot. _“They’re coming to get you. They know where you are.”_

“Maggie, look out!”

In all the confusion of the kiss and watching Alex, Maggie hadn’t even noticed let alone heard the Dodge Challenger pull up a few metres behind her or seen Rick Malverne stalk towards her, gun raised. Alex dropped the phone in an instant and raised the gun Maggie had given her as Rick aimed his properly at Maggie’s head.

**_Bang._ **

 


	8. Bohemian Like You

Maggie only heard the ringing of the shot in her ears as the whole world seemed to slow down. People around her were scattering like startled rats, scurrying away to safety. In the corner of her eye, she could see Alex running towards her in slow motion with the gun still clutched tightly in her hands, a small trail of smoke following its barrel. Another shot rang out. This time Maggie felt it, the bullet. It nicked against her ear, drawing blood on her lobe as it skimmed past.

Ahead of her, Rick was falling falling falling backwards and hitting the floor as if he were a thrown toy.

The bullet had lodged in his arm, pinning him to the ground as he bit back a cry of pain. Maggie could see herself moving, standing up, but couldn’t feel it. She felt weird, warped even. The ringing was still in her ears, and she couldn’t hear a single thing Alex was shouting at her. Maggie ran at Rick, picking up his discarded gun and ramming it into his chest. He didn’t reply, only squirmed beneath her in pain.

She pulled back his sleeve, revealing only a couple more hours than hers. He chuckled at her confused frown.

“Sorry to disappoint. We don’t…keep much on us.” He growled up at her. “Its to discourage…thieves like you.”

Maggie only smirked, ignoring the blood that was trailing down her jawline from her ear. She took hold of his wrist, listening to the low hum of his clock. “Think of this as a gift.”

“Mags, come on!” Alex shouted from Rick’s Challenger. “We have to go!”

Maggie stood up, the gun still pointing down at Rick’s face. She’d left him with an hour to spare. She backed herself up to the car, keeping the gun trained on Rick as he staggered to his feet. The moment she was close enough, Maggie dived into the driver’s seat and her foot slammed onto the accelerator. The car lurched forward, narrowly missing Rick as it screamed past and swerved into another street, leaving him alone.

“I didn’t mean to shoot him! I just wanted to scare him!” Alex explained quickly, noticing the blood on Maggie’s face with a worried glance.

Maggie wiped her chin with the back of her sleeve. “I think you did both.”

“You could say thank you.”

Maggie grinned at the redhead. “Thank you. What have you got?”

“Nine hours. Why did you give him time? You should’ve taken it.”

“Timekeepers live day to day.” Maggie explained. “It’ll be hours before the others show up. He could still die in the ghetto.”

Alex nodded her understanding. “This is a mess.”

“Welcome to my world.” Maggie looked to her again. She didn’t seem fazed, at least not as much as she had the day before. “They’re going to think you’re with me, are you okay with that?”

Alex returned a smile that Maggie hadn’t seen before. It was sly, and dangerous, _challenging_ even. The redhead raised an eyebrow, and her voice teased. “Ride or die.”

+

Far behind them, Rick Malverne clutched his arm as he made his way through the ghetto. Street rats all around taunted him from a distance, laughing to see the Timekeeper in pain.

“Timekeeper, what’s the hurry?”

“Stay a while, you might like us if you got know us!”

He pushed silently through a jeering group ahead of him, feeling disgusted to even be rubbing shoulders with them. They were dirty, and they stank. Their features were even uglier up close as they spat at him and pushed him around. Rick moved on, spying Rudy’s Challenger parked up ahead. His fellow Timekeeper noticed him at the same time he did, and headed towards him.

“Back off!” He ordered the Blue Springs residents around Rick. “You’ve been shot. I was worried you timed out.”

When Rudy went to inspect Rick’s injured arm, the blonde yanked it away and carried on towards the car.

“Hey, where’d you get that?” He questioned as Rick got into the passenger seat, and so followed by hopping into the driver’s seat.

Rick’s head lolled back against the seat, sweat beading on his forehead as his temperature got higher and higher from the wound. _“Just drive.”_

++

Maggie ignored Alex’s protests until they’d passed the border and safely reached a highway junction in Midvale. The redhead had been insistent about Maggie’s shot ear for about half an hour until the brunette finally let her start fussing. Once the coast was clear, Maggie sat on the bonnet of the Challenger and waited impatiently as Alex tried to clean the graze on her ear.

“We need to get going, Alex.” She grumbled unhappily, glancing around uneasily. “The Timekeepers could be here at any minute.”

“Sit still.” Alex replied, dabbing at Maggie’s cut with the fabric of her boiler suit. “Besides, you said it yourself, the others won’t show up for hours.”

“I could be wrong.”

“You haven’t been wrong so far.”

“This might be the time to start.”

“Shut up.” Alex finished, moving down to Maggie’s jaw.

As she worked at the blood, Alex studied Maggie carefully. She was still on edge, but she noticed the way she calmed under Alex’s touch and the goose bumps her fingertips left on her neck. Alex would be lying if she said that didn’t make her smile.

After a moment, Maggie spoke again. “So, what was that back there?”

“What was what?”

Maggie took Alex’s hand and moved it away from her face, dropping it into her lap. She popped her eyebrow perfectly. “Alex.”

Alex looked back into Maggie’s deep brown eyes for a moment, and then sighed. “I don’t know.” She mumbled, looking away. “Spur of the moment?”

“Alex.” Maggie could hear the lie in her voice.

“Adrenaline?”

_“Alex.”_

_“Okay!_ ” Alex exhaled, running her hand throw her hair and letting out a long sigh. “I don’t know, alright? I don’t know why I did it. It was just a stupid kiss, that’s all.”

Maggie’s fingers ghosted over Alex’s knuckles. “That’s all?” She echoed.

Alex dragged her eyes up to Maggie’s slowly, and swallowed. “No.” She admitted.

Maggie smiled, and just accepted that answer. Her heart felt warm, almost fluttery as Alex looked away again. Instead of continuing the conversation, she slid off of the bonnet and returned to the driver seat and waited for Alex to also retreat to the safety of the car.

“What are we going to do? We can’t keep driving around in this car, it’s a cop car.”

Maggie popped another eyebrow. “So, let’s make an arrest.”

She flicked the siren and pressed the accelerator, pulling out onto the highway and targeting the first car she saw. Coolly and calmly, she hopped out of the car again with the gun hanging down by her side. Maggie tapped on the window of the flagged car.

The window rolled down, revealing a young woman with long brown hair and the suit of a private driver. “Was I going too fast?”

Maggie angled her head down. “Not fast enough. The mistake you made was stopping.” She rested the gun on the sill, startling the driver. “Now, let’s see who you’ve got back there. There’s gotta be a year of two that nobody’s using.”

A quiet shot rang out, a bullet narrowly missing Maggie’s hand and nearly knocking her over from shock.

 _“Shit!”_ She swore, looking behind her.

Alex was holding her gun in both hands, aiming it at the driver. A manic smile spread across her features that Maggie tried not to laugh at. Alex shrugged at her.

“It went off.” She attempted. “I was just trying to help.”

There was a faint pfft behind Maggie as the driver frighteningly pressed the button to open the back door to their taxi. Maggie rolled her eyes and pulled it open, dragging the passenger out by their arm. A woman stepped out, backing up against the car. Even behind the massive sunglasses, Maggie recognised her. It was Lena, the woman from the poker game in National City. Maggie smirked, tilting her head to the side.

“Now, I’d say, ‘Your money or your life’ but since money _is_ your life…” She gestured with her hand.

Lena fumed behind her sunglasses, delving her hands out of her pockets and pulling off her glove, giving Maggie her wrist. “How dare you steal from me.” She spat at Alex, who kept her gun on the other woman. “I thought we were friends.”

“Try not to think of it as stealing.” Maggie shot.

“No?” Lena retorted.

“Think of it as repossession.” She replied, adding Lena’s hours to her own clock. “I’ll leave you with what I’d had most every day of my life. One day.”

“One day?” Lena echoed, yanking her hand back. “Are you insane?”

Maggie pulled a face, turning to Alex in comic sarcasm. “You can do a lot in a day.” She turned back to Lena, and nodded to her ears beneath her dark, raven-black hair. “Those are pretty.”

If looks could kill, Maggie would’ve dropped dead at the glare Lena gave her from behind the sunglasses. Had there been any kindness or mutual hatred towards the socialites between her and Maggie at the poker game: it was certainly gone now. The pale woman handed over her earrings and stepped back.

Maggie offered Alex the earrings, two little silver stones that were probably worth thousands. “I owe you these.” She said, referring to Alex’s forsaken diamonds of the previous day.

Alex, keeping one hand on her gun, took them and rolled her eyes. “You shouldn’t have.”

Maggie grinned and pointed her gun at the driver again. “You, out.”

Lena removed her sunglasses, revealing the furious green eyes behind them. “Sam, don’t.” She commanded. The driver ignored her and stepped out of the vehicle quickly.

The two were left on the middle of the highway as Alex and Maggie commandeered it and drove away into the distance.

++

The two women stopped again a few miles away, now not far from the border of National City. The taxi had a television screen in the back, and so the two in boredom, switched it on to watch. Immediately, their own faces flashed onto the screens – both mugshots that every citizen was required to have when their clock started.

The newsreader narrated as CCTV footage at Maggie driving the jag flashed around the screen:

_“Maggie Sawyer, prime suspect in the murder of James Olsen, is believed to be travelling with Alexandra Danvers, daughter of finance magnate, Jeremiah Danvers. Citizens are advised to exercise extreme-“_

Alex switched it off again. She sighed tiredly. “We look cute together.” She joked weakly.

Maggie huffed a laugh. “It doesn’t say you’re wanted.” She observed.

“It doesn’t say I’m not. You’ve forgotten I shot a cop.” Alex replied, making Maggie chuckle properly. “I admit, not very well.”

“It was your first time.” Maggie pointed out. Alex didn’t reply, turning her head away as a small whimper escaped her lips and tears formed in her eyes. “Hey, I can say I made you do all of it. _You can go back_.”

Alex looked at Maggie again. “Go back to what?” She snapped. “Do I really want to spend my whole life not trying to die by mistake?”

Maggie softened at her anger, knowing it wasn’t personal. “A lot of people would say being here is a mistake. I don’t have a choice.”

“I’m starting to think I don’t, either.”

Alex relaxed back, her eyes falling to Maggie’s lips. Maggie’s own eyes followed, catching the redhead’s drift. This time, as they leaned slowly closer, she was going to take charge. Maggie’s hand snaked up to Alex’s jaw, hooking her little finger underneath it whilst the others drew her closer. She could feel Alex’s breath on her lips now, heavy and shaking with nervousness. Maggie’s thumb grazed over her cheek to reassure her that it was alright.

Alex’s lips were soft, like silky pillows. She tasted of the apples Maggie had found for them that morning, mixed with the coffee she’d also managed to make with limited hot water. It was a heavenly combination, for Maggie at least anyway. Alex whimpered as Maggie deepened the kiss, and almost pulled away from embarrassment, but Maggie’s hands dipped to her waist and pulled her in with strong arms.

Alex hadn’t experienced anything like this before. It felt like everything had dropped to her core, a warm, flipping feeling just below her stomach. She almost couldn’t breathe, her jaw shaking from this feeling. The whole world melted away, and it was only her and Maggie in that moment. Nothing else mattered. The warmth of the kiss was making everything shake; her mouth, her hands, her thighs all quivered until Maggie’s tongue teased Alex’s lower lip and the redhead turned to putty in her arms.

And that feeling inside of her exploded into a million fireworks, ricocheting in a lightshow of desire and wonder. _Yes_ , Alex thought to herself, _this was **right**_ **.**

++

“I want to reassure you all that there is no cause for alarm. No ransom was paid.”

Jeremiah Danvers sat alone in his office, facing the giant, wall-sized screen that showed him his stocks. On this particular occasion, it screened the map of the world, with several links to numerous business partners on the line. Each time one of them spoke, the country or state they were calling from would light up on the screen – and it was making his eyes hurt. They were making his ears hurt too, their voices loud and frustrated in the speakers.

 _“Your zone is at risk, Jeremiah.”_ Maxwell Lord’s annoyingly nasal voice sneered through, lighting up the Metropolis zone.

 _“It puts us at risk. It can spread.”_ The voice of Lillian Luthor added; _haughty and strong much like her son and daughter_ , Jeremiah mentally noted. _“Too much time in the wrong hands can crash the market.”_

Jeremiah shook his head. “This hostage situation will be quickly resolved.” He reassured.

“Sir.” J’onn announced from the doorway, catching Jeremiah’s attention.

Walking past his massive guard came the familiar Timekeeper, Rick Malverne. He strode in, nodding his understanding that Jeremiah was on a call and put his hand on his hips as he waited expectantly in front of the desk.

Jeremiah quickly paged in all the partners on the call. “Everything is under control. We’ll talk soon.” He didn’t wait for an answer as he disconnected the call and focused his attention on the newcomer in the room. “Timekeeper. After this regrettable incident, it’s really not necessary for you to come in person.”

Rick could hear the annoyance in the rich man’s voice, but chose to ignore it. He didn’t care whether he was on a call or skydiving out of a plane – he’d let him say his piece. “I’m afraid it really _is_ necessary.”

“When can we hope for a rescue?” Jeremiah huffed impatiently.

“I believe that’s the point.” Rick replied. “She doesn’t appear to _want_ to be rescued.”

“Mr Malverne. Rick, may I call you Rick?” Jeremiah asked and when Rick only blinked in response, he continued. “I blame myself. I invited the woman into my home, she had so much time, how was I supposed to know? Of course, Alexandra brought this on herself by her lack of vigilance. That’s why I always tried to keep her close, you understand? But she is clearly under this Sawyer woman’s control.”

When Rick just kept silent, blinking simply in response, Jeremiah leaned forward on his desk.

“If it’s a matter of resources, I’m happy to make a contribution. It’s a _scandal_ what we pay our Timekeepers.”

Rick returned a small nod, as if he were pondering Jeremiah’s suggestion for a second. He clicked his tongue in his cheek, his pale eyes fixing Jeremiah in his gaze. “I’ve issued a warrant for your daughter’s arrest.” He told the rich man, noting the expression of fury that was brought to his features. “If she contacts you and you assist her in any way, I will issue a warrant for _your_ arrest.”

Jeremiah rose from his desk, and exhaled coolly. He wasn’t about to let this little upstart be the boss of him: the man who owned thousands of buildings and had shares in over thirty companies across the globe, two heirs to his fortune and the face of time itself. He was above the law.

“There is nothing I cannot buy.” He told the Timekeeper calmly. “Now, how many of my years do you want?”

Rick’s lower lip coiled into a shrug. “There aren’t enough years, even in your lifetime, Mr Danvers. Goodnight.”

Without another word, the Timekeeper took a last look at the map behind him before turning on his heel and headed out of the office with a quiet goodnight to the guard. Jeremiah watched him go, loathing his arrogance as he disappeared from sight.

His hate for his daughter was growing with every second, and his head was starting to hurt.

+

Back in Midvale, Maggie had managed to find a clear stretch of land to stop properly away from any prying eyes. She and Alex stood at the front of the car, facing into nothing.

“Now, this-“ Maggie began. “-is called a trigger.”

Alex laughed as Maggie breathed into her neck and adjusted her arms upwards, pointing their now shared gun straight forward.

“And you don’t pull it until you _actually_ want to shoot something.” Maggie added.

Alex rolled her eyes and aimed the gun forward. “Like this?”

Maggie lowered her arms. “Yes.”

Alex pulled the trigger, startling the other woman. _She’s going to send me to an early grave at this point_ , Maggie thought to herself as they both jumped. She took the gun from Alex, rolling her eyes as she did.

Alex shrugged. “I wanted to shoot something.”

“Right.”

The redhead quietened from her joking and turned around, only a few inches from Maggie as she settled into the shorter woman’s arms. “Maggie, if you get a lot of time, are you really going to give it away?”

“I’ve only ever had a day.” Maggie replied softly. “How much do you need? How can you live with yourself watching people die right next to you?”

Alex looked away, ashamed. “You don’t watch. You close your eyes.” She admitted sadly, stepping back out of Maggie’s embrace. “I can help you get all the time you want.”

Maggie grinned, and Alex returned it, happy that she’d made that happen. She placed a small kiss at Maggie’s cheek.

“Come on, let’s go.”

+

About an hour later, a truck smashed into the front of the Danvers’ Midvale Timelenders, sending glass shards and building alike everywhere. The poorer residents of the zone were sent into confused panic as the truck flew past them and embedded itself into the wall beside the open vault at the back. Emerging from it came two figures, both dressed in almost military black and deep blue leather uniforms, with metal suitcases in their hands.

_“I really love, your hairdo yeah. I’m glad you like mine too, see we’re lookin’ pretty cool, I’ll get ya-“_

Music blasted from the truck, an old one from the early twenty-first century that was recognisable as Bohemian Like You by the Dandy Warhols. For those who had enough money to own a television or some form of news screen, they would’ve recognised the two figures to be the fugitives: Maggie Sawyer and Alexandra Danvers.

Sawyer was the one in black: a beaten leather jacket over a grey shirt and her dark hair tied back into a ponytail. Danvers wore a black long-sleeve shirt with an armoured breastplate over the top and knee-high combat boots. There’d been reports of a few clothing stores being robbed too.

_“So what do you do? Oh yeah, I wait tables too. No I haven’t your band, ‘cause you guys are pretty now-“_

The two walked straight into the vault, ignoring the stunned onlookers and opened their suitcases with a click, their arms sweeping time capsules into them easily. The citizens crowded around the open vault curiously, confused and amazed at their boldness.

The taller woman noticed them and turned, shutting her suitcase and holding to her side as she faced her audience, a smirk on her face. “Ladies and gentlemen, I am happy to announce that Danvers Timelenders is now offering interest-free loans with no payments.”

“Ever.” The shorter woman added defiantly.

“So, help yourselves and take a day.”

“Take a month. Hell, take a _year_.” The other dared. “Come on! Help yourselves! Take it.”

The crowd began to move forwards to the vault as the two women left it, grinning wildly. People were immediately grabbing for whatever time they could get on their wrists. Maggie Sawyer watched on for a brief moment, her eyes pricking to see her plan coming a reality. The music continued to blare through her ears, muffling the happy cries of the people in front of her.

_“Yeah, I like you, and I’m feelin’ so bohemian like you. Yeah, I like you. Yeah, I like you.”_

If anybody noticed the Danvers and Sawyer women slip away into the streets again, nobody said anything. Even if they had, nobody would’ve heard them over the blasting of the song coming from the truck.

_“And I’m feelin’ so bohemian like you!”_


	9. Un-fucking-believable

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAVE THIS FAT CHAPTER

Eight more reports were filed that week of Danvers trucks slamming into the front of their own Timelenders’ line, four different time zones. The last one Maggie and Alex hit was Blue Springs, and Rick and the Timekeepers still didn’t get there quick enough. Time capsules were dropping around the broken glass like flies as people plugged them onto their wrists and then ran to get more.

It was pissing Rick off tremendously. It had taken a pair of Bonnie and Clyde’s to prove that he led a completely incompetent team of chasers. Ten banks, and no arrests of the Sawyer woman and the Danvers girl. His boots crunched against the shattered ground as he stormed up to the smashed front of the lender’s.

“No one’s watching their clocks, huh?” He snarled at those closest stood to the vault of capsules. “Get out of here, or I’ll confiscate every second!”

Rudy stood by his side, checking out the Danvers truck whilst Jud switched off the music blaring from its front seat. This one had been playing The Walker by Fitz and The Tantrums; one of these girls was a big fan of the twenty-first century music.

“Must’ve thought it was a drive-through.” Rudy snickered, earning an eye roll from Rick.

_Incompetent tit._

As he turned on his heel to return to his car, Rick spotted the notorious Blue Springs gang, the Minute Men, roll past in an old Rolls Royce. Their leader, Livewire, glared into his soul as the car drove past – a deep frown written into her brow. Rick tightened his jaw as the gang drove away: he was going to have even more trouble to deal with now.

_+_

Across town, Maggie was finding it easier and easier to get around Blue Springs without being noticed. Residents had caught on to her fugitive status and for the first time in their lives, valued her beating heart more than the time they had on their wrists. With even the smallest contributions, their time wasn’t wasted on keeping Maggie and Alex’s whereabouts schtum.

The pair were giving time to anyone they came across. Brainy found his capsule at the bottom of the laundry basket whilst he was bringing in his dry clothes. He hadn’t even heard Maggie swoop in and then out, but somewhere in his heart, he knew it was her. The two found as many of the homeless as they could, silently tucking a capsule or two into their pockets as they slept. Maggie almost wished dogs had clocks as she found a small mutt curled up to a little girl’s side. It was a pit bull or some mix of that, and the poor thing only had three legs and yet still, when it saw Alex and Maggie, offered them a smile with a wagging of its tail. Maggie settled for a scratching of its head before leaving it with a capsule and disappearing again.

The two even managed to find Laurel Harkness, the girl she’d seen outside the factory. When it had only been a couple of days go, to Maggie it felt like years. The pale girl was curled up in a discarded tunnel pipe, wrapped up only by her work uniform.

Maggie left an extra capsule underneath her arm.

Their final action was Alex’s idea. The bank was still out of time, and that was about to change. Maggie forced the clerk up against the door with her gun whilst Alex dived past.

“Don’t move.” Maggie ordered, keeping her gun level with the boy’s back. He wasn’t very old, maybe his late teens. She couldn’t hear his clock beating underneath the sleeve of his shirt.

“I don’t have much.” The teen whimpered. “Everything I have, I give away.”

Maggie followed his gaze as his frightened eyes flickered to the vault ahead of them. “I know.” She replied. Her arm slipped under his and she took hold of his wrist.

There was a low whir as she added two centuries years to his clock, spying his amazed eyes reflecting in the harsh light of the bank. He’d probably never seen anything like it, and for a brief second, he reminded her of herself when she’d first arrived in National City.

As the two women slipped away back into the night, the boy smiled as citizens flooded to the bank – their hearts happy and their clocks full as they saw the neon sign finally flicker to _‘TIME’._

Alex and Maggie couldn’t save everyone though, and they didn’t realise that their biggest threat wasn’t Jeremiah nor was it the Timekeepers.

++

Livewire’s real name was Leslie Willis, and she was originally from a small time zone named Gotham Bay (twinned with the much larger and more commonly known Gotham City). However, since the death of her parents and any other remaining family, the woman had relocated to Blue Springs and led her life there.

The woman had originally been a dirty blonde when she’d arrived at the sleepy town and had looked like most of the other residents here. In fact, she’d blended in quite easily with her grubby appearance and beaten down composure.

The name ‘Livewire’ had originated from an accident in the factory that everyone in Blue Springs seemed to work at. A faulty wiring in the machine had sent Leslie flying into a wall on the other side of the open warehouse, breaking several bones and sending her dirty blonde hair a shocking white colour that couldn’t be dyed out. The incident had actually improved Leslie’s life greatly. The government had provided her with enough time to sit in the infirmary without worrying about the ticking of her clock. However, that benefit had run out at fifty years – and the woman had been on the war path ever since.

“Well.” The blonde sneered at the man stood a few metres ahead of her. “Look at that.”

Her eyes, so dark that they were almost black, were fixed on the man’s clock which was exposed from his rolled-up denim shirt. She was flagged by her crew, a woman named Siobhan Smythe and another named Psi, who served alongside her as drivers if nothing else. She didn’t care about the man they’d targeted, only the four green years that hummed away on his wrist.

The man grinned. “Yeah. I finally had time to buy one of these.” By the back pocket of his jeans he produced a gun and held it at the three women.

Livewire shrugged with her lower lip and backed up slowly. Their Rolls Royce was only a few inches away, and Psi was already sat in the driver’s seat, ready to go. “Let’s not do anything I might regret.”

The man smirked as the car drove past him and away. He restored his gun to his belt and began to walk away. Livewire, who’s eyes had remained on the rear-view mirror, tutted under her breath. _Fatal mistake_.

She nodded her silent command to Psi, who stopped the Royce and put it into reverse. Her next command was to Siobhan, who was sat in the backseat. The minion laughed under her breath before rolling down the window and sitting on the sill precariously. From her waistband she drew a gun, aimed, and fired.

The man fell to the ground, his face making hard contact with the gravel beneath him. The Royce stopped a few metres from him and Livewire calmly got out and approached him. The numbers on his arm were black, and fading already. She let out a huff of frustration and kicked the puddle beside him angrily.

“What was that about?” She snarled, unhappy to not have gotten his time. Her usual victims would just submit, there was the occasional runner but nobody had ever put a gun on her. Nobody could afford it.

A billboard above them flashed on, displaying two mugshots with the message underneath. **‘REWARD: TEN YEARS’**. Livewire glared at it, the woman on the left looked almost familiar but she didn’t know where from. The name rang a bell though. _Maggie Sawyer_.

Her black eyes fell back down to the dead man. She kicked his body roughly with her boot. “I wasted thirty days on you, _you lump of shit_.”

++

_“Today, Alexandra Danvers withdrew some of her ‘inheritance’ when she and Maggie Sawyer, robbed her father’s time bank for the ninth time in a week. Timekeepers say-“_

Jeremiah Danvers switched off the news curtly, throwing the remote down onto the table with a loud clatter. His body may have been twenty-five, but his mind was in its seventies and his daughter was giving it an ulcer. The billionaire’s tether was getting shorter and shorter as the days went on, as was his capability to notice the rest of his family.

He had been stood in his lounge for thirty minutes before he even noticed his wife and youngest daughter waiting in the doorway. Eliza had her arms folded across her chest, looking lost and exhausted. His daughter, Kara, had tears in her eyes as she clung to her mother. Had Jeremiah paid any attention to his remaining family, he would’ve heard the younger girl crying for her big sister at night and not understanding why she hadn’t returned.

“I give her everything.” Jeremiah snarled under his breath. “Does she want to kill me?”

Eliza gently pried Kara off of her. “You were killing her, Jeremiah.” She replied. “You were suffocating her. You suffocate us _all_.”

Eliza Danvers may have been his seen-but-not heard trophy wife, but she wasn’t blind to Jeremiah’s lack of parenting skills. She wasn’t blind to her own, either. Taking advice from the Luthors since she’d become pregnant with Alexandra had been her own downfall, but she could still see her daughter’s opinions towards her father’s actions. Every rolled eye, every slammed door, every quiet curse under her breath at a gala dinner. Alex had always hated it: it and him alike.

Only now was she starting to see her daughter’s way of thinking, the idea that nobody should live forever and everybody deserved a life long enough to live and not just survive. She grew prouder and prouder of her older daughter each time she saw her on the television screen.

Without another word, Eliza and Kara left the office and descended to the ground floor of the Danvers mansion, and picked up the suitcases waiting by the door.

+

“Call.”

Maggie sat inches from Alex as the redhead turned her deck of cards around and slapped them onto the duvet they were sat on.

“Ooh, that’s good.” She grinned, and then turned her own cards around. “But not as good as this.”

The two were sat in a cheap motel room where the promise of an extra month had silenced the doorman for the night. Both were tired from their day, but after the discovery of a deck of playing cards in their bedside cabinet, a small amount of energy had been renewed. The dim glow of the lamp on the table brought out Alex’s honey brown eyes as she struggled to keep awake. The cool tunes of Radiohead’s Exit Music probably wasn’t helping.

The redhead groaned at Maggie’s cards. “Ugh, why did I agree to play strip poker with you?” She chuckled as she leaned back and pulled her long-sleeved shirt from her body and threw it across the room to join her trousers.

Maggie, who had only removed her leather jacket from their game, beamed and closed the gap between them and finally, as if she’d been waiting all evening to do it, pressed their lips together. Alex immediately went to putty and dropped the cards in her hands, making a target out of the faded orange carpet. She didn’t even notice. She couldn’t register anything but the feeling of Maggie’s lips on hers. And, after the initial shock, she found her arms winding around the shorter woman’s neck and pulling her up, up, up over the top of her as she laid back against the duvet.

Maggie tasted like coffee and fresh donuts – an interesting combination, but surprisingly not an unpleasant one. Alex hadn’t meant to, but just once the tip of her tongue flicked out and traced the edge of Mason’s lip (which had earned a low groan from the shorter woman) and she found that she rather enjoyed the taste of caffeine and sprinkles together.

Alex felt the kiss beginning to deepen and her body thrummed and hummed and willed it so, but the logical side of her brain tossed a red flag into the air. Alex’s conscience caught it, and the redhead gently unwound herself from Maggie’s sides and neck and pushed against the muscled shoulders. Maggie recognised the gesture and (begrudgingly) released her.

The two took a few moments to catch their breath, eyes closed and foreheads pressed together. Maggie spoke first.

“Are you-“

“Uh huh.” Alex affirmed breathlessly.

“-good?”

“Yep, yeah. Totally fine.” Alex replied again, nodding her head into Maggie’s.

Maggie sat up again, her thumb catching the hem of Alex’s pants as she stroked the redhead’s sides. Alex sat up with her, her long legs tangled in Maggie’s lap as her fingers embedded themselves into the dark mane of hair.

“I’ve never heard this song before.” Maggie whispered.

Alex opened her eyes. “What?”

“This song. You said it was Radiohead.”

“Oh.” Alex exhaled with a small smile. “Haven’t you ever heard a Radiohead song before?”

“I’ve never heard a radio before.” Maggie mumbled in reply, and Alex suddenly felt bad again. “You know, I can’t remember why we stopped.”

“I probably wanted to talk.” Alex joked weakly, and earned a husky laugh from the other woman. She gestured between them. “About us.”

Maggie opened her eyes and sat further back, letting Alex’s hands flop to her lap. “Right. _Us._ ”

“Yeah. Don’t get me wrong, this has been the most exciting week of my life, Maggie. But what about when this is all over? We’re going to get caught at some point, so we need to-“

“Shut up a minute.” Maggie suddenly hushed, her right ear pricking. There was a noise just out of distance that was bothering her – niggling at her even. She suddenly realised how harsh she’d sounded. “Sorry but, just be quiet a sec.”

There it was again. A low whir that wasn’t either hers or Alex’s ticking clock, it was almost a groan. Then a car door opened. Then it shut again. A cough, and then the whir again. Something flashed, lighting up the inside of the motel room for a second, and then it was gone again. Maggie pushed herself to the floor and peaked out through the blinds of the window. Three Dodge Challengers were all parked outside, and it didn’t take a genius to recognise the three Timekeepers as Rudy, Jud and Rick, all of them heading for the motel door.

“Put your clothes back on.” Maggie ordered, and Alex didn’t need telling twice.

“What’s going on?” She hissed as she pulled her trousers back on.

Maggie glanced at her, her eyes ever-telling of the danger they were on. “Timekeepers. C’mon, we need to go.”

Alex didn’t have time to put on her breastplate as Maggie took her hand once she’d shrugged on her jacket. They left calmly, at a hurried walk with their guns by their sides as they got out of their room and into the corridor. Almost immediately, four Timekeepers appeared at the end of it.

 _“Hey, stop!”_ One shouted, and broke into a run.

Maggie took a firmer hold of Alex’s hand. “This way.” She ushered hurriedly, pulling them down a side corridor and down towards the room at the end of it.

She barged it with her shoulder, and thankfully for the cheap material of the door, it came down without a complaint. Thankfully the room was unoccupied, bar from a bed, a side table and a chair.

“We’re trapped!” Alex cried, looking behind her fearfully.

Maggie, however, scanned the room and quickly found her solution. “Nope!” She replied, grabbing the chair by the legs, turning, and hurling it at the room’s only window with all her strength.

Again, she inwardly thanked Blue Spring’s cheap materials as the window shattered on impact and the chair hit the street below. Maggie took Alex’s hand and crawled into the window space, ignoring the pain that flashed through her hand as it made contact with broken glass.

“Jump. They won’t do it.” She assured her.

“ _We_ shouldn’t do it!”

Maggie squeezed her hand. “Trust me.” She said softly, and that was all it took.

Alex nodded and the pair jumped. Thankfully a car had been parked underneath the window and broke their impact. Maggie hissed as her knee buckled on landing and hit the bonnet of the car, hard. _That’s going to bruise in the morning_ , she reminded herself. Alex landed beside her, and slipped off the roof without injury. The two shared a mutual nod, grabbed the other’s hand and took off again. They’d managed it across the street and behind a chain-linked fence connecting to a wall by the time Rudy and Jud made it to the broken window. Maggie stopped Alex, glancing back at their pursuers in the window.

“See? They won’t jump.”

Alex opened her mouth to reply as Rick pushed past his two colleagues and leaped from the window without a second thought, landing on his feet on the roof of the car. Instead, the redhead just raised a cocky eyebrow.

“So much for your theory.” She teased.

Maggie sighed. “Shit.” She muttered unhappily as Alex grabbed her hand again and dragged her away.

The two continued running, well aware of the other’s laboured breaths. Their lungs weren’t about to give them the distance they needed so they’d have to either give Rick the slip or get transport and fast. As they ran, Maggie noticed a great deal of people walking towards them were factory workers, realising their uniform.

“This way.” She told Alex, turning the corner and sprinting towards the closing factory in the distance. Judging by the number of workers heading home, it would be closing time might just give them enough time to catch the bus on the other side of the factory.

Rick kept up a good pace, trailing the two by only around eighty metres. He wasn’t about to let them get away. Maggie could spy him getting closer and closer and so when she spotted a ladder fixed to the factory side, she guided Alex towards it.

“Go up there, it’ll slow him down.”

Alex went up first, shimming up it as fast she could without slipping. Maggie was close on her heels, all the while keeping Rick in the corner of her eye. She knew he would be quicker than her, it didn’t matter whether his stamina would outlast hers or not if he was on her before she could even get tired. Besides, he’d be on _Alex_ before he got her.

“Stop!” Rick shouted, stopping and pointing his gun at the two women as they continued up the ladder. “Stop!”

When they didn’t, he fired two shots. One ricocheted off the ladder and narrowly missed Maggie’s hand and the other grazed along the bottom of Alex’s combat boot and chipped its heel.

Both girls made it onto the room unharmed with Alex refusing to go unless she had Maggie’s hand in hers the whole time. She knew it was dangerous but she didn’t care. She didn’t want to be running to only turn around and find Maggie wasn’t there.

Alex was tiring. She wasn’t as fit as Maggie and had nowhere near as much experience in running as the shorter woman did. Rick was catching up on her, she could hear his boots pounding across the roof.

“Maggie, I don’t think I can keep going.” She puffed as they hopped over a partition.

Maggie only squeezed her hand and dragged her on. “I’m telling you, he’ll give up before we do!”

Even through her heavy breathing, Alex managed a scoff. “You sure about that?”

A shot rang out, sparking off a generator a few feet to their right.

Maggie sighed. “No.”

The brunette pushed Alex onwards, letting go of her hand and turning her gun in Rick’s direction. She fired three shots, all of them missing. Rick fired another back, and Maggie heard it whistle past her. In her frustration she fired another three shots.

“Maggie!” Alex screamed, and the shorter woman returned her run towards her as the redhead reached the end of the roof.

Maggie fired another shot behind her, but Rick dived behind the generator as the bullet skimmed over the top of it. Alex was wavering at the top of another ladder, looking between the ground below and Maggie worriedly.

“Go!” Maggie ordered.

“Not without you!”

Maggie was touched, but she wasn’t about to wait around for romantic gestures. “Yes, you can, now _go!”_

With one lingering glance, Alex finally relented and began to descend down the ladder quickly and carefully. Maggie turned and fired another shot at Rick, but he dived away again. He was too close to outrun now, so Maggie charged.

She stepped on the partition and leaped, batting his gun away as he fired. It went off close to Maggie’s damaged ear and for a second all she heard was its high-pitched whine. It was enough to knock her off guard so that Rick delivered a punch to her jaw that made a loud crack against it. Maggie cried out in pain, blood filling her mouth as she bit into her tongue, and managed to return it with a rough kick underneath Rick’s chin that smacked him backwards onto his back.

She slammed a fist into Rick’s face and batted his resistant hands away. She stepped in with another jab that rocked the Timekeeper’s head. Rick got his feet underneath Maggie’s abdomen and pushed, sending her flying backwards. She landed on her side and rolled, coming up on her knees. She aimed her gun, fired and missed again but sent Rick crawling behind the generator.

She spat out a small mouthful of blood. _“Un-fucking-believable.”_

Maggie retreated and slid down the ladder, gasping with pain. Her ear was still ringing, her jaw was aching and her stomach felt like she’d just belly-flopped into water at a fifty-foot drop. Alex was waiting for her at the bottom, her hand open and she pulled Maggie along behind her as she spotted the bus just in the distance. Maggie’s lungs screamed and her legs complained against her as she tried to keep up with Alex – but she persisted through.

They made the bus just as the last passenger boarded. Blood was trickling down Maggie’s chin now and her tongue was making it hard to make words. Alex dragged her onto the bus, pulling Maggie’s wrist under the scanner and then her own.

“Hold on.” The driver paused. His eyes trailed painfully slowly to a billboard across the street and the breath hitched in their throats. It was their wanted poster. “You two look familiar.”

Alex shoved her wrist out. “How about now?” She spat, growing more and more worried of Rick’s figure getting closer and closer in the wing mirror’s view.

The driver took an age but he held out his own wrist, satisfied when Alex had given him two months, and pulled away before the two women had even gotten into a seat. They were aware of the eyes that followed them, but merely chose to ignore them as they flopped into an empty seat, their hearts thundering against their ribs.

Rick was left in the bus’s dust.

++

Alex pulled Maggie off the bus at Birdie’s grocery store, satisfied they were far enough away from the Timekeepers to walk again. Maggie, in the pain of her bloody mouth and swollen tongue, was too tired to protest as Alex helped her off the bus. She didn’t want to be anywhere near this street let alone this store.

Her flowers still lay discarded in the street, trampled by vehicle and person alike. Maggie didn’t even want to look further up the street, but something in her heart dragged her bloodied face upwards. She wished she hadn’t. Gabriella was still there, the lower half of her body only visible by the warm light of the street lamp. Someone, probably a bus driver, had evidently dragged her body out of the way so it rested on the sidewalk, on its side facing the road. Maggie turned her head away again. She wondered if it was that same bus driver.

Alex wrapped her arms around Maggie, hooking them underneath her arms and allowing the shorter woman to lean on her as they walked. She knew for now that she’d have to take charge, and get Maggie cleaned up.

Dawn was almost breaking by the time Alex found another place for them to stay. It was a small hotel, but it would do. She and Maggie stumbled, exhausted, up to the receptionist who frowned at Maggie’s bloody appearance.

“Uh, welcome to the Century.” She greeted. “Can I help?”

“We’re looking for a _quiet_ place to stay.” Alex told her.

“How many rooms?”

“All of them.” Maggie grunted beside Alex, already tired and annoyed by this conversation.

“We were hoping for something long-term?” Alex diffused, holding out her clock. “Can we rely on the discretion of your staff?”

The receptionist smiled at the time on her wrist. “I’m sure you can.”

She handed over a key and watched the two stagger up the stairs to a room. She stared at the space long after they’d gone, only shaken back into reality when a young man walked into the lobby.

“Sorry. We’re fully booked.”

The man smirked, as if he knew what she’d just done, and turned away again, leaving her alone. He stalked out into the streets, disappearing into an alleyway that directed him to one of the abandoned railways near the factories; the one they’d found that rich guy at.

The man, known to most as Ben, had heard there was a time fight going on and given the two fugitives that had been breaking into any and every bank, the stakes were higher than ever. Ben was strong, or at least strong enough to win one fight and with only two days on his arm – now was his chance. His oldest friend, Adam, was there when he arrived. There were quite a few people around, maybe twenty to thirty give or take, he reckoned.

“Alright?” He greeted his friend, who shuffled nervously on his feet and his hands stayed planted in his pockets.

“No. We shouldn’t be here.” Adam replied anxiously. He was right. Both men were actually from National City, and were outcasts of it. Ben was so proudly, whereas Adam was regrettably. “This is a bad idea, Ben.”

Ben patted his friend’s back. “You’ll be fine.”

As he said this, an old-fashioned Rolls Royce suddenly screamed into the clearing. Most of the people scattered, knowing exactly who the Royce belonged to, and left about twelve people who were not so quick. Ben’s heart plummeted as his feet froze to the ground, too frightened to run. Adam also remained, quivering in his boots. Its driver and passenger got out calmly, each holding a gun in their hand.

Their leader spoke first, calmly and in a purring tone, like a cat who was playing with its prey between its claws. “Nobody goes anywhere.”

Her two minions pushed people up against the chain-link fence, all in a line. Adam was separated from Ben, two boys shoved between them. Livewire sneered at her caught victims.

“You know who I’m looking for.” She glared at Adam. “I’m looking for whoever gave this man a month. And I’m going to clean the clocks off of every one of you in this hellhole until someone says something I want to hear.”

She stood, holding her ear out in a comic fashion. There was no reply. Ben looked at Adam out the corner of his eye. He was holding his arm, a frightened expression written all over his face. Ben’s jaw felt like it was wired shut, as Livewire stalked around them.

“I can’t hear anything.” She growled. When there was no further reply, she shook her head and gestured to Adam with her gun to one of her cronies. _“Clean it.”_

“No! Wait, wait. Wait. Please!” Adam begged, tears already running down his face. Siobhan grabbed his arm roughly, shoving her gun into his throat. “Please don’t! Please! I don’t know where they are!”

Siobhan only held him tighter in his place whilst he cried and pleaded. Livewire scratched her head with her gun, unbothered and bored by him. Instead, she looked at Ben, who was the only one staring at his feet.

_“Please!”_

The ticking finally stopped and Ben heard the yelp from beside him, followed by the scuffle of Adam’s body dropping to the ground. His heart beat against his chest like a drum, like it was about to leap out of him.

Livewire smirked at the boy next to Adam. “I believe you’re next.”

Ben finally found the courage to step forward. “Um…”

“At last, someone’s acting reasonably.” Livewire said sarcastically.

“I just want a share of the reward.” Ben attempted weakly.

She sauntered up to him, straightening his jacket once she reached him. She looked him up and down as if she were a piece of meat. “My young friend, you’ll get your reward.”

Livewire took Ben by the back of the neck and guided him towards her car, whispering a silent order to Psi just out of his earshot.

 “Once we’re done, _clean him_.”


	10. For Few To Be Immortal, Many Must Die Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're rounding the final bend now! 
> 
> Don't worry, there will be a soft, fluffy epilogue!

Maggie slept for the rest of the day, letting Alex tend to her wounds whilst she rested. The redhead kept a damp cloth over Maggie’s cheek, applied another plaster to her ear and kept a hot wheat bag on her stomach to keep down the swelling. The brunette woke again in the early evening, curled underneath a warm duvet and Alex’s head resting on her shoulder.

Despite her injuries she smiled to herself, and ran a hand through Alex’s hair. She couldn’t believe it. In the space of two weeks, Maggie had gone from honest, hard worker to unintended millionaire to a fugitive on the run with the perfect girl. She sighed contentedly, although this stirred Alex as the other woman lifted her head up.

“Are you alright?” She asked softly.

Maggie grimaced a smile. “Yeah, thanks to you.” She replied honestly. “I would like to get up, though.”

Alex nodded and moved off of her. “God, today has been wild.”

“Yeah.” Maggie agreed as she swung her legs off of the bed and glanced around the room. It was basic, but at better than the motel room. It had five, lime green walls that contained a sofa, a table with six chairs, a large double bed and a basic en-suite bathroom.

Maggie crossed across the room, ignoring the pain in her stomach where Rick had launched her, and stuck two fingers between the blind to see their surroundings and potential escapes if they needed it. The first thing she saw was their wanted poster flashing back at them from atop the railway. She tutted.

“Ten years.”

She sat on the sofa beside Alex, throwing her arm around her shoulders as the redhead curled her legs up to her chest.

Alex stared straight ahead. “That’s insulting.” She joked, making Maggie chuckle. “If they catch us, there’s no way they won’t kill us, is there?”

Maggie waited a moment, pondering her question. She tilted her head. “Do you regret this?”

Alex shifted. “You saved my life.”

“When?”

“Now.” She replied softly. “And every day since I met you.”

Maggie kissed the back of her head, breathing in the strawberry scent of her hair wash. “You forget, I almost got you killed a few times, too.”

Alex rolled her eyes, a smile twitching the corner of her lips. “I’m willing to overlook that.” She turned her head and embedded her hands into Maggie’s hair, placing a strong kiss to her lips.

The kiss only lasted a few seconds when the door to their room suddenly went flying off its hinges and landed on the other side of the room. _God_ , Maggie thought, _can’t we just have five **fucking**_ _minutes_? Two women with guns strode into the room, and upon spotting Maggie shoved her roughly up against the wall opposite the sofa.

A third walked in, pinning Alex to the sofa by wrapping her arm around her shoulder and securing her hand at her throat. Livewire grinned, this was too easy. Alex tried to elbow her but the blonde kept her in her grip tightly. Maggie seethed trying to move, but Siobhan kept her gun poking into her cheek painfully.

“How’s the poor little rich girl?” Livewire taunted, getting too close to Alex’s face so that her lips nearly ghosted the redhead’s jaw. “I never got a chance to properly thank you for your time. I’m not surprised you stayed.

Livewire shoved her face up against the side of Alex’s, making the redhead shiver as her lips touched her ear and neck. Her other hand was on Alex’s stomach and making its way down, down, down towards her legs. Alex didn’t whimper, but looked to Maggie desperately. Maggie tried to shove Siobhan back, her anger consuming her entire body. Psi held her arms down, and kept her pinned against the wall.

“It’s the life, isn’t it?” Livewire continued. “Here we don’t stop living until we’re actually dead.”

Alex lowered her head back, glaring daggers into Livewire’s black eyes. “There are a lot more ways to die around here.” She threatened.

“But here, there’s _dancing before dying_.” Livewire hissed in return. She grabbed Alex by the scruff of her neck, pulling her up by her hair and shoving her forward.

It hurt Maggie’s heart as Alex hissed through her teeth in pain whilst she was dragged across the room and thrown into one of the chairs roughly. Siobhan pulled Maggie from the wall and threw her into one opposite from Alex.

“Of course, it’s your… _gal-pal_ …I’m most happy to run into again.” The blonde looked to Maggie. “You’ve been causing a lot of trouble, which is usually my job. Don’t you understand? The reason the Timekeepers leave me alone is because I have boundaries. I steal from my own people. You surely know things are bad when I have to restore order. Fortunately for you, I don’t like to kill anyone in cold blood.”

Livewire put her gun down and shrugged off her jacket. Then she continued.

“I do it, but I prefer not to. I think you deserve a fighting chance.” She sat across from Maggie and stuck out her arm. “We play to zero.”

Alex watched them both intently, noticing how Maggie’s jaw tightened and a twitch of her lips made a brief smile. Maggie shook her head.

“What’s the point? I lose, I die. I win, they kill me.” She pointed out, gesturing to Siobhan and Psi on either side of her.

Livewire clicked her tongue. “If you don’t fight, I’ll kill you now.”

“And _her_?”

“After I take you, I’ll take her.” Livewire’s hand slipped down and rested on Alex’s inner thigh. The redhead immediately smacked it away angrily. The blonde looked back at Maggie, and clicked her tongue again. “Oh, yeah. And her time. Then I’ll collect my reward for making everything right in the world.”

Maggie glanced between Livewire’s smug grin and Alex, who shook her head in return. She’d rather die now than watch Maggie be killed like her father right in front of her. Maggie swallowed, and then rolled her sleeve up and propped her other arm up on the table. A small, fearful gasp escaped Alex’s lips as Maggie’s hand connected with Livewire’s wrist.

The blonde immediately flipped her hand on top, pinning Maggie’s arm to the table and digging her fingernails into her forearm. Maggie grunted in pain as she tried to flip her hand over, but Livewire held her there tightly. The years ticked away on her arm faster than she could count and just as she tried to turn her arm over, Livewire came at her again and pinned it back down.

The years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds slowly disappeared on Maggie’s arm and soon only fifteen remained. Alex wanted only to leap across the table and shove them apart and let Maggie have all of her time if she needed it. Psi and Siobhan leaned over, eager to see Maggie time off. Alex watched Livewire’s eyes intently, wishing and praying they’d do what Maggie expected them to.

Maggie was on four seconds when Livewire did it. Her eyes betrayed her as they flicked from Maggie’s down to the remaining seconds. Maggie took her opportunity and flipped her whole wrist, sliding her hand further up Livewire’s arm and holding it to the table strong. Psi and Siobhan looked stunned, and in their moment of weakness, Maggie’s hand dipped to her boot.

There, she pulled out a smaller gun and fired two shots in quick succession. One embedded itself in Psi’s throat and the other lodged into Siobhan’s brain. Both women fell back, dead before their knees even buckled beneath them. Blood was pouring from Maggie’s arm now where Livewire’s sharp fingernails were digging into her. Her eyes remained solely on the gang leader as the last seconds ticked down. Livewire was panicking and writhing underneath her, trying to let go, trying to escape the inevitable – but Maggie was too strong.

 **Three** …

**two** …

 

 

……. **one**

The impact threw Livewire backwards, her chair falling with her onto the floor with the thirteen black zeros etched across her arm and pain across her face. Her body was still, and she didn’t get up. Maggie gasped out and there was pause, both women stunned that they’d made it out alive. Then everything blurred into action again and Maggie was grabbing Alex’s hand and sprinting for the door.

They escaped onto the back of the hotel roof, unseen.

++

Rick stared at the three bodies laid out in front of him. He didn’t understand. How could every possible person he employed, even the criminal ones, fail to bring these two to justice? Livewire, Siobhan and Psi had been dragged from the hotel room and now lay, face down, in the street. There was a sizeable crowd around to witness the spectacle of the most notorious gang reduced to nothing. Rick, although he reined his temper in, was beyond furious. Alex and Maggie were making a complete mockery of him, and it made him all the more determined to hunt them down.

“All the time she’s taken.” Rick murmured, glaring at the black zeros.

Rudy, who stood loyally behind him, raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you mean the time he’s given away, sir? Even to you?”

Rick turned to glare at him, his scar brightened by the streetlights. He invaded the man’s personal space, mere inches from his face as he spoke. “I have given fifty years of my life to this job.” He said calmly. “I am not about to see those years go to waste. Go on.”

Rudy didn’t move and for a moment, Rick thought his trusty second-in-command might actually disobey him. But then, as always, Rudy relented and headed back towards the car. Rick nodded and chose this moment to prowl up against the onlookers.

“I’m sorry to be the one to break this to you.” He sneered hatefully. “But by tomorrow, you won’t have time to stand around.”

++

He was right. As Alex and Maggie sat atop the roof to make their next plan, they were both suddenly alerted to the general news screen across the street below them. The screen, which usually just displayed the Timelenders loan rates, flickered for a few seconds and then the percentage slowly ticked up from 35% to 48%.

Maggie scuffed her boot across the floor angrily, swearing under her breath. “Goddamnit.” She snarled, and then sighed. “It’s over. We lost, we’re not doing any good.”

Alex leaned up against the brick chimney. “At least we’re trying.”

Maggie shook her head. “No. You don’t understand. All they have to do is keep raising the cost of living. A hundred years. Two. A thousand. It does nothing.” She said, tears pricking in her eyes.

“So, what? We just stop fighting?” Alex said defiantly.

“We can’t win. We can’t hurt them. The time we’re taking makes _no damn difference!”_

“What would?” Alex challenged again. “What would hurt them?”

Maggie threw her arms up in the air. “A million years. You got a million years on you?”

Alex’s neck twitched, and she tightened her lips together. “I guess it really would take a million years.” She murmured. “Let’s give up.”

Maggie frowned to see the redhead smiling back at her. “You’ve got that look on your face. The look of ‘I’m going to do something dangerous and my girlfriend is going to be really impressed by me’.”

Alex raised an eyebrow. “Girlfriend?”

“Shut up. Let’s do this, you ready to die?” She took Alex’s hand in her own and brushed back a strand of hair.

Alex placed a kiss to Maggie’s lips. “Ride or die.” She promised.

++

It was a grey morning in National City when Alex Danvers walked through the front door of her father’s office. Having followed him around to all sorts of meetings and knowing his schedules inside and out, knowing when her father would be arriving at his office wasn’t hard for Alex to remember. Surrounded by a mix of guards, about thirteen, her father was completely hidden from view. The guard at the back of the group was the first to notice her presence, and the gun in her hand.

“Stop!” J’onn J’onzzz deep voice boomed out, stopping the Danvers girl in her tracks.

“Hello, J’onn. It’s good to see you.” Alex greeted politely, then raised her chin to address the rest of the guards. “My name is Alexandra Danvers. I want to surrender, but only to my father.”

Jeremiah immediately emerged from their midst. He looked weary, his usually gleaming hair was mussed and untidy and his eyes had bags underneath them. Alex almost felt sorry for him. _Almost_. She’d heard on the news that her mother and Kara had finally left him, and he looked like he was starting to realise the enormity of the situation.

“Alexandra.” He breathed.

Alex put down the gun, and held her hands upwards in surrender. “Hello, Dad. You’ve hired more guards since I last saw you.”

“Thanks to you, I need them.” He said coldly.

Alex cocked her head. _“One too many.”_

A gun’s safety clicked behind him and immediately every guard trained on the person stood behind Jeremiah’s head. Dressed in the same white shirt and black blazer with the tinted sunglasses was Maggie Sawyer with a gun against his skull. She didn’t even quiver at the nine guns trained on her.

“Guns down.” She ordered. “Now!”

“Do it.” Jeremiah commanded softly. The guards relented for a second, and then did as they were told.

Alex picked her gun back up and trotted up the steps to Maggie and her father. The brunette took the man’s shoulder and spoke into his ear.

“Let’s go for a ride, Mr Danvers.”

She pulled him backwards and following Alex’s directions, they were at his main office in no time. Knowing the guards had probably raised all kinds of alarms, they knew they couldn’t be there long. As Alex entered the code for the keypad to enter, Jeremiah rose an eyebrow.

“You’d steal from your own father.”

Alex rose her own eyebrow, evidently a mannerism she’d picked up from him. “Is it stealing if it’s already stolen?”

The door opened and the three entered the office, following Alex to the back where her father’s vault rested. Maggie left Jeremiah with his daughter and approached the door.

“What’s the combination?” She demanded.

Alex scoffed. “Well, it’s not _my_ birthday. You’ve started to regret that day, I imagine, Dad.” Alex said, a sad tone lacing her voice. “Try 12-21-18-09. Darwin’s birthday.”

Maggie nodded. “Survival of the fittest.” She hummed over her shoulder as she began twisting the large crank. “It cost us centuries just to bribe our way in here. Let’s see what it got us.”

She exhaled coolly and pulled the heavy door back, revealing the contents inside. They hadn’t been what she’d expected. Inside the vault sat a single capsule upon a dull, grey pedestal. Maggie’s eyes widened as she picked it up, inspecting the six green digits on it.

“Quality time.” She muttered, glancing to Alex. Jeremiah had turned away from them, his eyes reserved for the door. “There really is a man with _a million_ years.”

“It’s my first million. It won’t be my last.” Jeremiah commented as Maggie handed the capsule to a silently enraged Alex.

“Do you know how much good it could to?” Maggie snapped, pushing him along with her gun as Alex silently made her way to the exit.

“I know how much harm it could do.” He bit back. “Try to understand, even if you gave a year to a million people, you’re just prolonging their agony.”

Alex couldn’t take it anymore. She turned around and swung. Her fist caught him straight in the nose, causing a sickening crack that him to yell and stumble backwards, clutching his broken nose. _“You’re prolonging their lives!”_ She cried, tears spilling down her cheeks.

Jeremiah snarled at her. “Flooding the wrong zone with a million years, it could _cripple_ the system.”

“Let’s hope so.” Maggie hissed.

“We’re not meant to live like this.” Alex said, stepping towards him with the gun, biting back a teary smile as he flinched. “We’re not meant to live forever. Although I do wonder, Father, _if you’ve ever lived a day in your life._ ”

“Is that so?” Jeremiah taunted through his pain. “You might upset the balance for a generation, two. But don’t fool yourself, dear girl. In the end, nothing will change. Because everyone wants to live forever. They all think they have a chance at immortality even though all the evidence is against it. They all think they will be the exception. But the truth is, for a few to be immortal, many must die.”

Those words, the same words James had spoken to Maggie, snapped something inside of her. She cocked her gun and charged at Jeremiah, making him back up several paces. Her face was a picture of rage; her breathing heavy through her nose and bared teeth, flames seemingly dancing in her enraged eyes. She flexed her fingers on the trigger, ready to kill him, ready to put a bullet in his skull. Then, after a moment of staring into his fearful eyes, she pulled her gun away as if nothing had happened and took a deep breath.

 _“No one should be immortal, even if one person has to die.”_ She said in a low, deadly tone. Maggie finished by spitting in Jeremiah’s face, her spit hitting him right in the eye to add to the mix of blood and broken bone.

She turned on her heel and stormed out of the office, waiting out of sight whilst Alex locked her father in with the key pin, and then shot it off the wall.

+

“What was that? What just happened?” Rick yelled as he ran into the main room of the Timekeepers HQ.

Alarms were ringing everywhere, and their screened maps were all flashing read. Keepers were running around, trying to get everything under control. Jud got up from his screen, hurrying over to his boss.

“It must be a mistake. A million years just went off the clock in National City.”

“It’s not a mistake.” Rick said, walking past him.

“It’s gotta be a mistake sir.”

_“It’s not a mistake!”_

Rudy exhaled as the two watched their boss sprint out of the building and grab the nearest car. He put his hands on his hips and looked at his friend. “It’s them.” He murmured. “You’re on dispatch, Jud, c’mon I’ll help.”

 


	11. For Few To Be Immortal, Many Must Die Part 2 - The End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here we are! The final chapter!   
> Thank you for reading and your wonderful comments, they really brighten my day!

Rick was enraged. Angrier than he’d ever been in his life. Maggie and the Danvers girl were making a mockery of him and his life’s work – and he was going to make them pay. Even if he had to do it himself. The Dodge Challenger prowled through the streets of National City, stealthier than a panther on its prey as it wove silently in and out of other cars.

“Dispatch, what can you see?” He growled quietly. His temper had always been short, but now it was like a fuse, one strike and he was alight with anger.

 _“There’s a lot of traffic in the vicinity, sir.”_ Jud’s voice read back.

Rick observed his surroundings, particularly eyeing any buildings with side roads and ones with roads beneath bridges. “Alright, look for the slowest car. You have a million years. You’re definitely not in a hurry.”

Nothing seemed to be out of order as he ducked beneath a couple of bridges, apart from a few locals stumbling out of bars together. Rick caught a glance of his wrist as he drove, noticing his clock was only at forty-five minutes. He looked to the time scanner behind his gear box.

“Dispatch, wire me my per diem.” As he spoke, something caught his eye. “No, wait. Never mind. _I’ve got her_.”

He was right. With a million years between them, Maggie and Alex were not in a hurry – in fact they were so slow in their getaway that they hadn’t even managed to leave the industrial estate. As they emerged out onto the main roads, Maggie was aware of Alex bumping her leg up and down in nervousness and tossing her hair as she looked out as many of the car windows as her neck would allow. She reached over and touched her knee.

“Hey, it’s alright. We can’t look suspicious, Alex.” She told her gently.

“If this works-“

“If this works, we need to get more.” Maggie replied. “Blue Springs isn’t the only zone that can use a few extra years.”

She realised the conversation had consumed too much of her lookout time as she heard the familiar siren suddenly start to screech behind them. Maggie shifted their car, a black sports Cadillac, into a higher gear.

 _“Shit.”_ She swore, and slammed onto the accelerator.

Back in his car, Rick prepared himself for the chase he was about to give. They were not going to get away this time. “Give the order.” He told dispatch. “Shoot on sight.”

“In National City?” Jud sounded appalled. “That’s against policy, sir.”

 _“So is having a million years leave the zone!”_ He roared back, and switched his dispatch off. Rick sat back, tightening his knuckles around the wheel and pressing the accelerator to the floor. “I’m going to fucking get you this time, Maggie Sawyer.”

++

Maggie and Alex were near the National City time zone border when they realised the danger they were driving towards. Armoured cars, trucks and jeeps of every size were rigged in front of the border toll booth, each with gunmen training their snipers and machine guns on their fast-approaching Cadillac.

Maggie heard Alex gasp in fear beside her, but knew she had to keep both hands on the steering wheel if they were going to get through this maze. “Keep your head down.” She warned. “And turn that music up.”

As Alex ducked her head down, she reached up to the volume and whacked it up. Fleetwood Mac’s _The Chain_ began blaring out of the speakers, earning a laugh from both women and they almost forgot about the hail of bullets that suddenly littered the front and the sides of the car.

Alex ducked again, and Maggie grimaced as she swerved the peppered car in and out of the armoured vehicles. Luckily, none of the bullets broke the windows and merely grazed the paintwork of the bonnet as the Cadillac shot past and obliterated the booth. It shot straight through it, leaving it a mixture of cheap plaster and sparking wires and sped on towards Blue Springs.

Rick wasn’t far behind, following Maggie’s path and making it past the trucks and destroyed booth.

Maggie cocked an eyebrow at the Challenger on their tail, feeling her heart begin to hammer, not with fear but excitement. The music continued to blast into her ears, only adding to the adrenaline coursing through her. She shifted in her seat, tightening her hands around the wheels.

 _“Yeah, keep us together.”_ She sang under her breath, her eyes still on the Challenger behind them. _“Runnin’ in the shadows.”_

++

“Keep going! Keep going!” Alex urged desperately.

The redhead’s nerves were well beyond her comfort zone after half an hour of Rick’s Challenger bumping the back of the Cadillac repeatedly. After smashing through the toll booth, the back of the Cadillac was hanging dangerously low and sparking off of the road. It was scratching into the pavement and digging into the back wheels too, slowing it down greatly.

Maggie was worried too, as the car bucked and sputtered beneath her grip. She looked ahead: the bank was in sight. “We’re close! C’mon, you hunk of garbage!”

In their fear of making it to the bank, neither woman had noticed the Challenger disappear from behind them and only saw it again when the front of it barrelled into the side of the Cadillac and sent it spinning across. The music cut off abruptly and Maggie tried to desperately right the car up again as Alex was thrown to the side, her head connecting just beneath Maggie’s rib and making her yelp in pain.

The two cars spun together, and all that could be heard was the crunch of metal on metal and the screech of burning tyres. Her world blurred for a few seconds, then sharpened again. Maggie checked to her right. Alex smiled back at her, and held a groggy thumbs up.

“You okay?” Maggie murmured, looking the redhead up and down.

Alex breathed heavily, resting her head against the dashboard for a few seconds. “Mhm, just let me have a moment, yeah?”

Maggie nodded her understanding. “How much have you got?”

“Half an hour.”

Alex gestured to the gun in the drinks’ holder, and Maggie nodded again, grabbing it and getting out of the wrecked car. She stumbled out and into the arms of someone familiar. Laurel Harkness’ big blue eyes seemed to stare into her soul as she helped Maggie to her feet.

“You’re Winn’s friend.” She said, her voice so delicate it could almost break. The girl wasn’t much taller than Maggie, and was about the width of a pencil. She looked like _she_ could break.

Maggie delved into her jacket pocket, and pulled out the stolen capsule. “Need a minute?” She grinned.

Laurel took the capsule, confused for a second before she realised what it was, and then she beamed. Her teeth were crooked and yellow, but her pale, glassy eyes sparkled in the green light of the million years in her hands. She followed Maggie’s gaze to the bank, and nodded her understanding.

As Laurel took off towards it, the capsule clutched tightly in her bony hands, the door of the Challenger creaked open and Rick staggered out of it. There was a black eye forming, and the way his scar stretched his features when he sneered made him look like a freakish cartoon.

He raised his gun, holding it steady in both hands as Alex joined Maggie in the street. Blue Springs citizens had caught onto the commotion, and were now beginning to crowd. Rick advanced towards them, snarling insanely.

Maggie backed up, putting herself in front of Alex slightly. “You’ve lost a lot of time, Mr Malverne.” She taunted with the tilt of her head.

Rick scoffed. “Looks like you’re about out yourself, Miss Sawyer.”

Over Maggie’s shoulder, the neon sign for the time bank flickered for **‘TIME’** and it was like turning a light on in a room full of moths. It only took one person to notice before they were all sprinting for extra time. Maggie seized the opportunity and grabbed Alex’s hand, and sprinted with the stampede.  

As her heart fluttered in time with the clattering of her boots, Maggie grinned. She hoped this feeling of holding Alex’s hand and just _running_ , would never go away. They sloped in and out of the clamouring crowd and slipped off down one of the side roads that would take them to outskirts of Blue Springs. Rick, on the other hand, struggled more with the crowds.

They recognised his uniform, and his face, and so, unlike for Maggie and Alex, they stood their ground. He shoved through them roughly, yelling in anger as more people got in his way and the two women got further and further away from him.

A local Challenger was being guarded causally by a Timekeeper, was quickly abducted by Rick’s presence as he threw his colleague roughly out onto the street and commandeered the car. As the car roared into life and after Maggie and Alex, residents from all over town flooded towards the bank with happy expressions on their faces. People with hours on their arms left with whole lifetimes.

++

“We need to get to Midvale.” Maggie panted as they ran on, checking her clock. Fifteen minutes. “We can make it!”

The pair had made it to the outskirts by dipping through old alleyways and Maggie’s shortcuts, and were yet to be followed by Rick’s ever-threatening presence. But both were tiring physically and the clocks were running out. Midvale was in sight, and they would _make it_. Noticing Alex was tiring more than she was, Maggie dipped back and urged her on by pressing her hand to the small of her back and urging her on.

“Can we?” Alex struggled through exhausted breaths.

A growling engine was ringing in both their ears as the Challenger appeared on the road over. Maggie held Alex’s hand tighter and tighter, pulling her along.

“Are you okay?”

Alex nodded numbly, and Maggie knew she was lying. She was tired, and she wouldn’t be able to go on much longer. The Challenger stopped at the concrete blocks in the road, and Rick hit the ground running, his gun in his hand. He sprinted towards them, ignoring the pain in his lungs as they complained against him.

He raised his gun. “Stop!”

Unlike Alex, Maggie actually did as she was told for once. Unfortunately, she braked so hard and so suddenly that Alex was thrown forward and tripped as she did. Rick caught her in his other arm and wrapped his hand around her throat, holding her up on her tip toes. Maggie raised her own gun.

 _“Don’t you dare.”_ She snarled.

Rick chuckled, a low nasty noise, as he raised his gun to Alex’s temple. “You can run.” He taunted, impressed at Maggie’s paced pants.

Maggie regarded him. “So can you.” She realised, catching her breath. “You’re _from_ here, aren’t you?”

Rick clicked his tongue, ignoring Alex’s tired squirms beneath his arm. “Long time ago, before I figured out how to escape.”

“Now you make sure no one else does.”

“That’s the way it has to be. I didn’t start the clock: I can’t turn it back. I keep it running – I keep time.” He seethed. “And I get to decide who dies, right here and right now.”

Rick poked the gun harder into Alex’s temple, making the redhead cry out. Maggie got closer, both hands on her gun. She thought she couldn’t feel anymore angry after the conversation with Jeremiah, but now she’d reached a whole new level of fury.

“You kill her and I will put a fucking bullet in your brain and twist it until I hit every single fucking nerve.” She threatened furiously.

Rick scoffed. “Why should you care? You only met this girl _two weeks ago_ and that was by kidnapping her.” He sneered, holding Alex’s cheek roughly in his hand. “Her family is responsible for the death of your aunt.”

Maggie saw how Alex stilled under his arm, trying to look away in guilty shame. She tried to ignore the pang of grief that swept through her, and refocused on Rick.

“Shut up. So, you know what it’s like to love someone like this? Like, when you’re apart from her, you can’t breathe? Like you would-- would die, I mean, actually… _die_ to know that she’s okay and happy? You separate yourself from everyone and everything. You always have – you’re a Timekeeper.” Maggie snarled. “Now, you might want to give us some of that time you borrowed unless you want us to die on the way to our public execution.”

Alex’s eyes were brimming with tears despite the smile on her face. Nobody had ever said anything like that about her before. Despite Maggie’s outwardly cold and unfriendly personality, she did care. Rick’s face had come over like a dark cloud, a frown burrowing into his brow.

“Time…” He mumbled softly.

Rick paused, his eyes glazing over into the distance. The gun slowly lowered from Alex’s temple and dropped to the floor, clattering loudly on the concrete. He pulled back the sleeve of his coat; breathing shakily and a fearful gasp escaped his throat.

His blue eyes met Maggie’s slowly with the same inevitable, exhausted look James’ had. Pained and sleepy. The final beating of his clock ticked on slowly, thudding into everyone’s ears. Maggie lowered her own gun, realising his fate.

In Rick’s rage and loathing against Maggie, he’d forgotten to add his per diem to his clock and now stood with the two women with the least time in all of Blue Springs. The clock struck zero and threw him backwards off of his feet. His fingers clawed Alex’s face as he fell back, leaving a long scratch from her cheek to her ear.

His head cracked on the concrete, leaving him with a pool of blood dampening his blonde hair. With his blue eyes wide open, his mouth parted in a frozen ‘o’ of surprise: Rick was dead.

Maggie rushed forward, catching Alex by the wrist as she stumbled backwards. “Alex!” She hushed as the redhead exhaled in relief, curling into Maggie’s chest. “Are you alright?”

Alex nodded against her. “Yep, all good. _Let’s rock and roll, buckaroo_.” She joked weakly.

Maggie’s eyebrows rose and she practically tore her sleeve off to look at her watch. She only had a minute. “We don’t have enough time.” She breathed, turning to Alex, who had two. “One of us can make it. Take mine.”

Alex pushed her back, shaking her head. “You take mine! You can get there, I can’t! I can’t get there, you can!” She urged.

“No, no I won’t leave you here.”

“Yes!”

Maggie shook her head frantically, trying to take Alex’s wrist in her hand but the redhead just tangled her hands up into her hair.

 _“Please.”_ She whispered, bringing her forehead against Maggie’s.

Maggie kissed her, holding her face in her hands softly as their lips crashed together and tears began to stream down their faces. “No.”

As they pulled out of the kiss, Alex looked out over Maggie’s shoulder and her eyes fell upon the Challenger up on the hill. “There’s time.”

“What?”

“The Keeper’s time, Mags. Run!”

The moment Alex grabbed Maggie’s hand and started dragging her away from Midvale, she understood and knew she’d have to run on. Despite Alex becoming much fitter over the past two weeks, Maggie was still much faster and still had a great deal of energy in her.

She let go of Alex’s hand with the silent promise that she’d come back to her and sprinted ahead, checking over her shoulder every second to make sure that Alex was still running.

“Come on, Alex! Keep going!” She yelled, hoping her voice wasn’t drowned out by the wind that whipped her hair into her face. “Keep running!”

She only had twenty seconds, and the Challenger was still just under a hundred metres away. Alex was getting further and further behind her, panting and puffing heavily as she tried to keep up. Every muscle was complaining and trying to go against her, but she gritted her teeth and bore through it.

Maggie made the car with five seconds to spare. “Give me time.” She shouted at the scanner, and breathed a short sigh of relief as it came to life and dispatched two days onto her wrist.

Before she could even take another breath, Maggie was out of the car again and running back for Alex. The redhead was at a dangerously slow jog now, but tried to ram it up a gear again when she saw Maggie coming back.

“Maggie!” She yelled, her voice hoarse and cracked.

“Keep going!”

As Maggie kept running, the tears in her eyes blurred her vision and for a moment she was thrown back to that night. Alex’s figure blurred into Gabriella’s, their faces matched in their fear as their arms and legs swung in synchronisation. Maggie could see their faces, all their faces. Winn’s, Alex’s, Gabriella’s, James: everyone she’d ever known who’d died because of the time on their wrists.

The beating of their clocks, the beating of their hearts, drummed in Maggie’s ears constantly as she thundered on. Everything was telling her to stop, to give up. She’d never reach Alex in time.

Alex was on her last legs, her time only on five seconds and Maggie still a considerable distance away. Neither of them would make it. Maggie had her arm out for Alex’s, stretched as far as her bone would let it go.

The moment their fingertips touched, Alex let out a gasp and fell forward, crashing to the ground with Maggie holding her in her arms. The brunette had one hand on the back of Alex’s head, and the other enclosed around her arm. She hugged her tightly to her, afraid to sit back and look at Alex’s face. Instead, she just cried into Alex’s shoulder, holding and stroking her red hair tightly.

“Maggie…?” A small voice, muffled by Maggie’s jacket, spoke quietly. “How long do we have?”

Maggie choked out a sob and pulled back. Alex’s eyes shone brightly with her tears as her face stretched into a smile. _She was alive_ , she’d _made_ it. Here she was: sat on her haunches with scraped knees and a scratched face, and she looked beautiful. Maggie checked her arm slowly, trying to keep her strained breathing in check and her heart in her chest.  

“A day.” Her eyes met Alex’s again, shining and full of admiration for the woman crouched in front of her. Maggie pulled her up to her feet, and closed the gap between them.

Maggie felt like she could kiss Alex forever, and never let her go. The adrenaline was still thrilling through her veins, and she didn’t care of whatever might be threatening them and their freedom. She could run forever, with Alex.

+

Maggie and Alex stayed at the top of the headlines for weeks: their reward money increasing with each day. New newspapers and magazines issued from CatCo each day, recounting each and every robbery they made, making comments on what was left of Alex’s family.

Kara was amongst an arranged marriage scandal after her Daxamite suitor had been found murdered with a gunshot wound to the heart in downtown Blue Springs. The Luthors were now refusing the blonde to their daughter’s hand after Alex’s robbery against her and her earrings, not to mention the collapse of the Danvers fortune. Alex sent the earrings back, in a silent form of apology. She hoped she’d get to see her sister again soon, and not just on a screen.

With the years still going up in Blue Springs, an official funeral was arranged for Gabriella on Maggie’s behalf. She couldn’t attend, of course, due to her fugitive status but everything was broadcast on a local radio so she was able to watch it from the comfort of an underground safehouse. A funeral was arranged for Winn too, the time donated from Maggie’s own arm and he too, was finally buried.

Televisions reported on them every night.

_“These are live pictures from Blue Springs. Citizens have taken to the streets, there’s so much stolen time in circulation. Factories in Blue Springs, Gotham Bay and Midvale lie idle and now, citizens are crossing zones, seen here entering Metropolis and National City. While authorities claim they have the situation in hand, others fear the system may be headed for collapse. We will continue to update you on this developing story.”_

“Sir, we’ve lost Zone Eight.”

Rudy was lost for words. He didn’t know what to do. Alongside Jud and his fellow colleagues, he stared with hopeless vague at the flashing red map up on their wall screen. Every zone was in crisis, their alarms blaring into his ears and sounding out across the city.

“And Ten.” Another colleague noted as Metropolis turned red. “It’s spreading.”

“What do we do, sir?”

Rudy continued staring at the map, watching it crumbling and falling apart with reserved despair. After a while, he just nodded and set his gun on a desk.

“Go home.” He mumbled, and turned on his heel.

As he strode away, Rudy’s eyes glazed over the mugshots of the two women he’d been pursuing for weeks. Maggie Sawyer’s eyes had that smirk she wore every time he saw her; it was like a glint in her left eye that just dared anyone to challenge her. Alex Danvers’ shot couldn’t have been more different to the person she actually was. The scared little girl that stared back at him hid the raging force that could break a man’s nose with just one punch, and masked the glare that could stop someone in their tracks.

A smile crept across him as he left the building. Deep down, he found them _admirable_.

+

_“Still no sign of fugitives Maggie Sawyer and Alex Danvers. Authorities continue to ask for the public’s help in bringing these criminals to justice.”_

Maggie leaned forward and switched the news over to the regular car radio, and sat back in her seat. The car they sat in was a dark red 1952 Chevrolet Deluxe, with a deep brown leather seats that matched the caramel highlights of Maggie’s hair. Both women were dressed in new outfits. Alex wore a black turtleneck with an ankle-length dark grey coat paired with dark jeans and pointed boots. Maggie still wore her dad’s usual leather jacket but replaced the grey shirt with a dark green flannel that reached to almost mid-thigh and black boots that stopped above her ankles.

The Chevrolet was parked underneath a tree behind the Maxwell Lord mansion. Music from the giant house was muffled by the car, but it already sounded like the party was in full swing. Alex reached into the duffle bag in the backseat and fished out two masks. Hers was black with silver intricately lining it around the eyes and edges whereas Maggie’s was dark red with golden lace.

Alex handed Maggie her mask. “Like the night you kidnapped me.” She chuckled, pointing to the small headgear.

Maggie laughed and pulled her mask on. “Oh yeah, this is like a full circle thing for us.” She returned, then reached across and squeezed Alex’s hand. “You ready?”

“Definitely.”

The two shared a knowing look before getting out of the car and meeting in front of it. Alex passed Maggie her silver Glock .17 and cocked her own with a grin.

“Told you there were bigger banks.” She teased.

Maggie shrugged, glancing at the massive house in front of them. “Yeah, and parties.”

“Well-“

“You almost missed your calling, I know.”

Alex laughed as Maggie took her hand and pressed a long, lasting kiss to her lips. Her heart fluttered, like it did every single time, and she never got bored of it. Maggie knew she felt happy with Alex, and knew she always would. She wanted to spend the rest of her life with this nutcase, and she knew that would never be enough.

She would never have enough time with Alex Danvers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before we part, I just recommend listening to all the music featured in this and some of the film's soundtrack too. Gabriella's death episode was named after the soundtrack score called 'Mother's Run' by Craig Armstrong.


End file.
